Later that evening, police received another tip. This time, a woman reported that Delante had shown her pictures of a woman being restrained and abused, and had threatened that he would soon do the same thing to her. The information was much more specific than the first call. Around midnight, officers returned to Delante's house.
The second caller changed the risk assessment because she was not repeating a vague rumor about a basement. She was describing images she said Delante had personally shown her and a threat she said he had made directly to her. The officers therefore returned knowing that the first search had not disproved the original report; it had only failed to locate a victim in the area they were allowed to inspect.
The second visit developed differently from the first almost immediately. Delante told officers to use the back entrance and apologized for being difficult earlier, but one officer who remained near the front heard heavy movement from inside while the others walked around the house. That observation did not prove anything by itself, but it stayed in the officer's mind once the search began.
Delante's tone was friendlier this time. He thanked the sergeant for returning, apologized for his earlier attitude, and directed officers toward the rear door. Yet the officer near the front reported hearing something substantial moving inside while Delante delayed access for a few moments. Once the team entered, that officer kept returning mentally to the sound because it seemed inconsistent with Delante's claim that no one else was there.
Downstairs, the basement again appeared empty. Officers commented on the smell and checked the same general area where they had looked earlier. This time, however, they kept expanding outward instead of treating the basement as the only place that mattered. In another part of the house they noticed a reddish mark that appeared to be dried blood. They also began checking doors, adjoining spaces, and the attic rather than relying on Delante's statements about where people could or could not be.
At first, the basement offered the same answer as before: no visible captive. Officers joked briefly about the strong smell in the lower level, then began moving room by room. The apparent blood raised the stakes, although they did not yet know when it had been deposited or whose it was. They also noticed that every time the house became quiet enough to hear distant movement, Delante wanted the music louder.
Delante kept trying to control the atmosphere with music. When officers asked him to lower it, he resisted. Eventually they ordered the music off and put him in handcuffs while they clarified who else might be present. The absence of the loud soundtrack changed what the officers could hear.
One officer asked whether anyone was on the front porch. Delante said no. The officer said he kept hearing a noise from that direction at the same time Delante tried to turn the music up. Another officer added that while the team had been moving from the front of the house to the rear, he had heard something being dragged or slid.
The officers began calling out. For several moments, there was no clear answer. They moved toward the porch area and tried to locate the source of the sound. Someone then indicated that there was a hidden or covered space beneath or around an object near the porch. Officers shined lights into the area and called again.
A weak voice answered.
The first questions were simple because the officers did not yet know how badly the person was hurt. They asked her name, whether she could breathe, whether she knew how long she had been there, and whether anyone else was inside. The woman identified herself as Cheryl Cyrus, said she could not move her legs, and complained of severe pain. When an officer asked whether she could breathe, Cheryl answered, "I can now." Officers deliberately avoided pulling her out themselves because they feared moving her could make her condition worse.
They called for EMS and fire personnel and remained with her until rescuers could safely remove her. Officers asked whether she had been stabbed and whether she had been sexually assaulted, but her answers were limited and difficult to hear. One of the responding officers summarized the scene to another by saying there was too much going on to explain quickly and that they still did not know whether Cheryl was the only victim.
One officer kept talking to Cheryl so she would know help was present while another tried to get an estimated arrival time for rescue. She could answer some questions but not enough to give them a coherent timeline. The priority was no longer interviewing her; it was getting her out without worsening a possible spinal injury. Delante was separated from the area while the house was secured for a more complete search.
After Cheryl was removed, officers searched again. They looked for clothing connected to her description, including a pink hoodie mentioned during the search, checked the attic, and examined rooms where she might have been held. Officers also followed up on information about a possible rifle and drugs in the residence, but the source does not establish another victim. The search gave detectives locations and physical details they could later compare with both Cheryl's account and Delante's admissions.