A Texas father used the parental controls on his teenage daughter’s cell phone to find and help rescue her after she was kidnapped at knifepoint while walking her dog on Christmas, authorities allege.
The 15-year-old girl at the center of a case, which quickly gained national attention in the US over the weekend, was reportedly kidnapped in the Houston suburb of Porter. Her parents said she took her dog for a walk and had not returned by the time she was supposed to, according to a statement from the Montgomery county sheriff’s office.
Her father subsequently located her phone through the device’s parental controls, the agency’s statement said. The phone was about 2 miles (3.2km) away from him in a secluded, partly wooded area in neighboring Harris county.
Deputies said the father headed to that spot and found his daughter as well as her dog inside a pickup truck with a partly nude man inside. She then managed to escape with a hand from her father, who called law enforcement officials, said the statement from the Montgomery sheriff’s office.
Investigators later learned that the man who abducted the girl had threatened her with a knife and then grabbed her off the street. Witnesses at the scene of the abduction provided a detailed description of a vehicle involved in the kidnapping and of its driver, leading deputies to identify 23-year-old Giovanni Rosales Espinoza as a suspect, according to the sheriff’s office.
The agency said it later tracked down Rosales – described as being from Porter – and arrested him without further incident. Deputies said they booked him with counts of aggravated kidnapping as well as indecency with a child. No bail was immediately set for him, and he remained in custody as of Sunday.
“Christmas is a day meant for joy, but this man chose to shatter that joy by targeting a child,” said a statement attributed to Montgomery county sheriff Wesley Doolittle. “I am incredibly proud of our deputies and detectives who worked tirelessly to ensure this dangerous predator was swiftly apprehended and is now off our streets.”
It was unclear as of Sunday morning whether Rosales had legal representation. Meanwhile, the Montgomery county sheriff’s office did not release the identities of his alleged victim or her father.
Under Texas law, aggravated kidnapping cases in general can carry at least five years in prison. And many cases involving indecency with a child generally can carry at least two years imprisonment along with sex offender registration.