How a Texan saved his 15-year-old daughter after she was kidnapped from the street. Only then did the police intervene
Cops in Houston, Texas. Photo: Walter Arce | Dreamstime.com
A Texas father used the parental controls on his teenage daughter's cellphone to find her and help her save her after she was abducted at knifepoint while walking her dog on Christmas Day, The Guardian writes.
The 15-year-old girl at the center of the case, which quickly gained national attention in the US over the weekend, was abducted in the Houston suburb of Porter.
Her parents said the teenager went out to walk her dog and didn't return when she was supposed to, according to a statement from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
Her father later located her phone through the device's parental control feature. The phone was about 2 miles away from him in a secluded, partially wooded area in neighboring Harris County.
The sheriff's deputy said the father drove to the scene and found his daughter and dog in a pickup truck, along with a partially undressed man. She managed to escape with the help of her father, who called the police.
Investigators later learned that the man who kidnapped the girl threatened her with a knife and then abducted her from the street. Witnesses at the scene of the kidnapping provided a detailed description of the vehicle involved in the kidnapping and its driver, which led officers to identify 23-year-old Giovanni Rosales Espinoza as the suspect, according to the sheriff's office.
Police later located Rosales — described as being from Porter — and arrested him without further incident. The police announced that they charged him with kidnapping with serious circumstances, as well as indecency in the presence of a minor. Bail has not yet been set and he was still in custody on Sunday.
Photo: Walter Arce | Dreamstime.com
