Girl, 13, who was abducted at gunpoint in Texas is rescued in California after the Good Samaritan says ‘Help Me!’ has seen. sign she signed and hung in car window: Suspect, 61, has been arrested
A 13-year-old girl abducted at gunpoint in Texas has been rescued in California after a passerby spotted her holding a ‘Help Me!’ held up. register a car.
The youngster, who has not been named, was rescued from the vehicle at the Easy Wash Laundromat in Long Beach on July 9.
Steven Sablan, 61, of Cleburne, Texas, was arrested and charged with kidnapping and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
It came three days after he allegedly kidnapped her at gunpoint from San Antonio before driving 19 hours across the US to Long Beach.
This undated photo released by the US Department of Justice features a “Help Me!” board used by a 13-year-old girl kidnapped in Texas
“Through their investigation, officers learned that the Good Samaritans were in a parking lot when they saw the victim in a parked car holding up a piece of paper with ‘help me’ written on it,” police said.
“The customers — who are regulars at Easy Wash Laundromat in Long Beach — acknowledged the note and immediately called 9-1-1.”
Sablan was held at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.
The girl was walking down a street in San Antonio on July 6 when Sablan reportedly drove up, raised a black gun and told her, “If you don’t get in the car with me, I’m going to hurt you,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
According to the account, the girl had left home without telling her parents because she was trying to visit a school friend who had moved to Australia a year earlier.
At some point after getting into Sablan’s car, the girl told him about her boyfriend and Sablan said he could take her to a cruise ship to go to Australia, but she would have to do something for him, the affidavit said.
The suspect stopped the car and assaulted the girl, who told him to stop but feared she would be hurt if she didn’t comply, the officer wrote.
The rescue took place July 9 in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, when officers responded to a 911 call and found the “visibly emotional and distressed girl,” police said in a press release Thursday.
In Long Beach, the suspect parked at the Easy Wash laundromat and told the girl to change, then took her clothes and his inside, giving the girl the opportunity to write “help me” on a piece of stationery, according to the document.
Sablan sexually assaulted the girl multiple times on the drive from San Antonio through New Mexico and Arizona to California, the affidavit said.
Meanwhile, the girl’s mother reported her missing to San Antonio authorities on July 7.
In Long Beach, the suspect parked at the laundromat and told the girl to change, then took her clothes and his inside, giving the girl the opportunity to write “help me” on a piece of stationery, the document said.
When Long Beach police officers arrived, Sablan was outside the car and they watched the girl say the word “help,” the officer wrote.
During the arrest, officers found a pair of silver handcuffs in Sablan’s back pocket and that he was wanted for burglary in Fort Worth.
A search of the vehicle turned up a black plastic BB gun, the “help me” sign, a stiletto knife and black handcuffs in a package labeled “Fetish Fantasy Series Designer Cuffs,” the document said.
According to the affidavit, Sablan was convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon in 1979, robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary in 1985, and possession of a controlled substance in 2016.
The girl was taken into custody by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.