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Caitlan Coleman details night she fled from estranged husband Joshua Boyle

Apr 1, 2019 | 9:40 AM

OTTAWA — Caitlan Coleman says she put on several layers of socks to protect herself before she dashed into the cold late on the night of Dec. 30, 2017 eventually phoning her mother from a nearby pizza shop in her bid to get away from her now estranged husband.

Coleman and Joshua Boyle were kidnapped together in Afghanistan in 2011 and spent years in captivity before being freed by Pakistani forces and returned to Canada in October 2017.

Boyle is now on trial on charges that include sexual assault and unlawful confinement, against Coleman and another person.

Testifying Monday, morning, Coleman said that when she left their Ottawa home, she took a $20 bill she had stolen from Boyle’s wallet and grabbed their three children’s passports from the bedroom closet over fears their father would take them back to the Third World.

Boyle made a late-night 911 call on Dec. 30 to say Coleman had run screaming from their apartment, threatening to kill herself, but Coleman says she never had a thought about or discussed harming herself that night.

Police officers found Coleman at her mother’s hotel room and, after hearing her story, said they planned to arrest Boyle that night.

The Canadian Press

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