The family of a young mother who was held hostage, sexually assaulted and brutally beaten for hours in Penticton claims they were forced to investigate her disappearance themselves after RCMP failed to act.

Mounties say the woman stopped by a second hand store with her 22-month-old son on Saturday and was tied to a bed, bashed repeatedly in the head with a hammer and sexually assaulted over a 15-hour period.

Though the RCMP has launched a manhunt to locate 35-year-old suspect David Wesley Bobbitt, the victim's family claims the police response to her initial disappearance was dawdling.

"They even told us not to search for her [Saturday] night," a family member told CTV News. "In they morning they were going to hold a press conference."

Male family members admit they took matters into their own hands, busting in doors in the neighbourhood where they found the 22-year-old victim's vehicle.

It was a door they broke through at Dave's Second Hand store that police entered to find the victim on Sunday. The woman's son was also discovered nearby in the store unharmed.

Scott Tidsbury says he's heard the suspect make threatening remarks about women before, once calling a woman a "bitch" and saying he would "bash her head in."

Mounties are still searching for Bobbitt, but Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said police have no indication yet of where he could have fled to.

"We cannot establish if he is still in the Penticton area or whether he has travelled outside the Okanagan area," Moskaluk said.

The suspect is described as a white male, 5-7 tall and 180 lbs. He has brown eyes, brown, balding hair and no facial hair.

He was convicted in 2005 of possessing a weapon for dangerous purposes in connection to an incident a year earlier in Nelson.

The victim remains in hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. A trust fund for her and her son is being set up at TD Bank under the name "Support for Penticton Hostage Survivors."

Police are asking anyone who sees Bobbitt, or knows where he is, to immediately call 911. Anyone with information regarding the incident can contact the Penticton RCMP at 250-492-4300 or via Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat