(LONG BEACH) A 13-year-old girl, kidnapped in Texas and sexually assaulted, was rescued in southern California when bystanders saw her waving a “help me” note out the window of a parked car, police and federal authorities said.
The rescue took place on July 9 in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, when officers responded to a distress call and found the “young girl visibly emotional and in distress,” police said in a news release Thursday.
During their investigation, officers learned that the Good Samaritans saw the victim in a parked vehicle, holding up a piece of paper that read “Help me.” They immediately called 911.
Steven Robert Sablan, 61, of Cleburne, Texas, was arrested and charged by a federal grand jury on Thursday with kidnapping and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Sablan is being held at the Metropolitan Federal Detention Center in central Los Angeles. It is not yet known if he has a lawyer.
The girl was walking down a street in San Antonio, Texas on July 6 when Sablan drove up, brandished a handgun and told her, “If you don’t get in the car with me, I’m going to hurt you,” an FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement supporting the criminal complaint.
According to the story, the girl had left her home without telling her parents because she wanted to visit a school friend who had moved to Australia a year earlier.
After getting into Sablan’s car, the girl told him about her friend and Sablan told her that he could take her on a cruise ship to go to Australia, but that she would have to do something for him, according to the affidavit.
The suspect stopped the car and sexually assaulted the girl, who told him to stop but was afraid of being hurt if she didn’t, the officer wrote.
Sablan sexually assaulted the girl multiple times during the drive between San Antonio, New Mexico, Arizona and California, according to the affidavit. Meanwhile, the girl’s mother reported her missing to San Antonio authorities on July 7.
In Long Beach, the suspect parked in front of a laundromat and told the girl to change, then took her clothes and put them inside, giving the girl the opportunity to write “Help me” on a piece of paper, according to the document.
When Long Beach officers arrived, Sablan was standing outside the car and they saw the girl say the word “help,” the officer wrote.
During the arrest, officers found a pair of handcuffs in Sablan’s back pocket and learned he was wanted for burglary in Fort Worth. A search of the vehicle revealed a black plastic air pistol, a “help me” sign, a switchblade knife and handcuffs.
The affidavit reveals that Sablan has been convicted of various crimes, some of them violent, since 1979.
The preteen was taken into the care of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.