Midwest
Massage parlor owner busted after allegedly forcing employee into 'big' and 'small' prostitution jobs
A Minnesota massage parlor owner was arrested after allegedly holding a woman captive in a “small room” and using her as a prostitute for customers, authorities say.
Authorities in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, received a 911 phone call last Saturday from a “screaming female” and responded to Massage Therapy in Willmar, according to court documents.
The “screaming female” did not speak English, and the responding officer used a language translation app to communicate with the woman upon arrival, while awaiting a Mandarin translator who could speak to the woman by phone. The woman was described in court documents, which were reviewed by Fox News Digital, as “crying loudly” on the floor.
Meanwhile, the officer also saw the owner of the massage parlor, identified as 55-year-old Ying He, in the parlor. The victim, whose name and age have not been released, told police that Ying allegedly hit her over the head, and that she felt “dizzy and had a headache.”
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Ying He, 55, was arrested in Minnesota after allegedly holding a woman in a massage parlor. (Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office)
The woman added in comments to a translator that Ying did not let her “drink water, cook food, turn on lights, and confined her to a small room,” according to the court documents.
The victim “stated that she gave a 30-minute massage to a customer that day and when the customer asked for more work to be done, her boss became upset with her and ended up hitting her on the head,” the records show.
The woman was transported to a local hospital and treated for her injuries. She told police that she was flown from California to Minnesota on March 3, and had been confined and living in the massage parlor since, where the owner monitored her movements, from eating to showering.
The woman said she paid a Los Angeles agency $100 to help find employment at a massage parlor that did not sell “sex.”
The woman accepted the job, under the pretenses that upon her arrival in Minnesota, her new boss would reimburse her half the plane ticket. Instead, according to the woman’s comments to police, she alleged that once she arrived, Ying watched all of her movements and forced her into sex work.
The victim said she was locked in a small room when she was not with customers and instructed to “do whatever the customer wanted her to do.” The woman told police that she was instructed to perform sex acts on the customers, including “small” jobs and “big” jobs.
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Massage Therapy located in Minnesota. (Google Maps)
“Small job meant assisting with hands masturbating the customer. Big job meant having sexual intercourse with the customer,” the court doc reads.
The woman said she was fearful of fleeing the parlor because the owner “would find her and He’s boss in LA was a lawyer for the courts.”
Police reviewed surveillance footage from the parlor after Ying denied hitting the woman or holding her captive, and found footage showing the owner hitting the victim on “the right side of her head.”
The footage, according to the court documents, showed a male customer exit a massage room and enter a separate room while the victim and Ying stood in the hallway, with the parlor owner allegedly speaking and “gesturing” at the victim. Ying then ran down the hallway toward the victim, stopping right in front of her, apparently sparking concern from the client waiting in the massage parlor.
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“The client then ran out into the hallway in his underwear as though he had heard something, then went back into the room,” court documents state.
Entrance of Massage Therapy in Willmar, Minnesota (Google Maps)
The massage parlor owner returned to the room where the client was located, before going back into the hallway and allegedly hitting the victim, according to the footage.
The victim was then seen falling and pulling out her cellphone, the documents detailed, citing the surveillance footage.
Police responded shortly after and Ying was arrested.
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Kandiyohi County Jail in Minnesota (Google Maps)
Ying was charged with one felony charge of soliciting an individual to practice prostitution and two misdemeanors for operating a disorderly house and fifth-degree assault. She’s being held on a $150,000 bond and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Authorities conducted DNA tests in the massage parlor rooms amid their investigation, and also found two sex toys, described as whips, in one massage room.
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OSWEGO, Ill. (WLS) — A Chicago-area man claimed a $1.3 million jackpot prize during an ordinary stop at a local gas station.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
The newly-minted millionaire said he bought the ticket while stopping to buy a drink.
“‘Why not?’” the winner said. “I played a Quick Pick, and it turned out to be a lucky day.”
His ticket matched all five numbers in the Thursday, June 11 evening Lucky Day Lotto drawing. The winning numbers were 1-13-19-27-35.
The ticket was purchased at Oswego BP, located at 2791 US Highway 34.
Overjoyed, he wasted no time sharing the big news with his wife.
“She was thrilled,” he said. “It’s funny-I actually won a $45,000 prize playing this same game 15 years ago when it was called Little Lotto.”
The winner plans to use the prize money to buy a new house and secure his and his wife’s retirement.
For selling the, the Oswego BP will receive a bonus of $13,000.
Copyright © 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Indiana
‘Foul play’ suspected in death investigation on Indiana-Ohio state line, Wayne County officials say
WAYNE COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) — Police are investigating the death of a person who died in the emergency department of Reid Health in Richmond.
Wayne County Coroner Brent Meadows was notified of the death Wednesday evening, according to a media release. Evidence has reportedly indicated that foul play is involved.
Officials believe the incident may have occurred in the area of the Petro Travel Center in New Paris, Ohio, just across the Indiana-Ohio state line.
The coroner’s office said the deceased person has been transported to the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for a forensic autopsy and identification.
The office is still working the locate and identify the victim’s family.
This remains an active investigation.
News 8’s Michaela Springer contributed to this report.
Thrive Iowa launches in Warren County and across the state
The new program aims to reduce barriers to families seeking help from local organizations.
Thrive Iowa, a new initiative from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, has officially launched in a number of counties across the state with the goal of helping struggling Iowa families connect with local resources and build a network of support in their community.
On June 23, Warren County celebrated its own program site launch as one of eight initial sites. Other counties that are celebrating their own site launches are Cass, Lee, Black Hawk, Webster, Buena Vista, Fayette and Clayton. A site is officially launched once it has enrolled a minimum of 20 participants, Iowa HHS Director of Communications Danielle Sample said in a statement.
The eight sites serve 11 counties in total, with services also available in Henry, Madison, and Van Buren counties, according to the Thrive Iowa website.
What is Thrive Iowa?
The initiative is focused on serving families, such as parents, caretakers, and pregnant individuals, according to the program’s website. To be eligible to receive help from the program, families must be living in Iowa, be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and have an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
The 2026 federal guidelines consider a family of four to be at the 200% threshold if they make $66,000 or less annually.
The program also outlines 13 core areas of well-being where it offers support. These include housing, recovery, employment, transportation, education, mental health, physical health, safety, dental, financial stability, food, child care and legal assistance.
The overall goal of the program is to reduce barriers to accessing support for families by doing the work of finding the right organization to meet their needs for them. Instead of having to reach out to multiple sources, a family can visit the program’s HopeHub, a case management system, to create a free account and receive a referral. Once referred, the individual is connected with a Thrive Navigator who will create a personalized plan and build local connections to assist the family.
Thrive Iowa is modeled after Restore Hope, an Arkansas-based nonprofit that began in 2015 to reduce the number of individuals in incarceration and the foster care system through community-based approaches. In addition to Iowa, this model is also used in Tennessee and Canada, according to the organization’s website.
The Iowa program plans to expand to other counties in the near future, Sample said. In July, Iowa HHS will begin onboarding more participating organizations and counties, expanding the program to serve 22 counties.
Warren County launch pledges to take families from crisis to careers
At the Warren County launch, the county’s initiative coordinator, Sarah Downard, was joined by Iowa State Rep. Brooke Boden, Ben Segebart, senior pastor at Indianola Freedom Fellowship Church, Sue Wilson, executive director of WeLIFT Job Search Center in Indianola, and Paul Chapman, executive director of Restore Hope.
Downard said the Warren County site is currently serving over 20 families.
To a room of around 75 community members and local organizations at The Hive event venue in Indianola, the five speakers emphasized the importance of the mission behind Thrive Iowa, which is collective impact and helping build strong communities through supporting the families that live there.
The group also invited the whole room to sign the site’s declaration of participation in the program, which stated the goals of the program and a pledge to work together to help take families from crisis to career.
“When families are struggling, we feel the impact everywhere,” Boden said. “We see this in our schools, our health care systems, our workplace, and our communities.”
Isabelle Foland is a communities reporter for the Register. Reach her at ifoland@registermedia.com.
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