a 13-year-old girl kidnapped in Texas was rescued in Southern California when passersby saw her hold up a “Help Me!” sign in a parked car and called 911, police said.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — A 13-year-old girl kidnapped in Texas and sexually assaulted was rescued in Southern California when passersby saw her hold up a “help me” sign in a parked car, police and federal authorities said.
Steven Robert Sablan, 61, of Cleburne, Texas, was arrested and was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. According to the account, the girl had left home without telling her parents because she was attempting to visit a school friend who had moved to Australia a year earlier but kept in touch through an internet chatroom.
Sablan sexually assaulted the girl several more times on the drive from San Antonio through New Mexico and Arizona and into California, the affidavit said. Meanwhile, the girl’s mother reported her missing to San Antonio authorities on July 7. 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 switchblade knife and black handcuffs in packaging labeled “Fetish Fantasy Series Designer Cuffs,” the document said.
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