MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A man who was supposed to be giving a woman a ride to a family member’s home instead drugged her, raped her alongside an accomplice, punched her, burned her hair with a cigarette and held a pair of scissors to her throat, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said that in January, the victim wanted to move from Orange County to her aunt’s house in Marion County so her aunt sent her the Facebook page for a man she knew, 28‐year‐old Efthimios Michael Zachary Mikedis, who could drive her.
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The victim contacted Mikedis, who she knew as “Zak,” and he agreed to pick her up from the Orlando area.
Mikedis arrived in a van his mother was driving with Robert McDaniel was also in the vehicle, records show. The victim described Mikedis as a man you’d be “instantly scared of,” the report said.
According to authorities, the suspects drove the victim to a property in Marion County and when she said she didn’t want to get out, Mikedis shoved an unknown substance in her mouth and told her “Why don’t you just stay here” when she asked about going to her aunt’s house.
At that point, deputies said the victim started losing consciousness due to the substance Mikedis put in her mouth and Mikedis led her to a camper where he and McDaniel raped her.
The victim woke up the next morning and tried to call an Uber to get away but Mikedis found her attempting to leave and shoved another unknown substance in her mouth, records show.
The woman said the substance tasted like toilet paper, made her thirsty, caused her to hallucinate and made her feel “like her insides were on fire.”
Though she was hallucinating that she could hear her daughter screaming from inside the camper, she remembered Mikedis burning her hair with a cigarette and holding a pair of scissors up to her throat, according to the affidavit.
The victim was searching for her daughter when deputies said Mikedis grabbed her by her hair, threw her out of the camper, dragged her by her hair, pushed her head into the dirt and punched her in the back of the head.
Mikedis’ mother arrived back at the property in the van and they drove the victim to a Winn-Dixie parking lot and forced her out of the vehicle, records show.
Deputies said they found the victim with scratches on her neck and took her to a hospital to be held under the Baker Act.
Mikedis was already booked in the Marion County Jail when authorities went to interview him about the case on Tuesday but he invoked his right to an attorney, the affidavit said.
He faces a sexual battery charge.
Deputies said McDaniel is still being sought. Anyone with information concerning his whereabouts is asked to call Detective Galler at 352-368‐3535.