A 17-year-old girl trafficked into the US from Mexico was rescued from a California house after texting 911, authorities said Thursday.
The teen, who only speaks Spanish, was smuggled into California by a 31-year-old Mexican national who is accused of raping the young woman, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities were able to uncover the sickening crime when its communication center began receiving texts in Spanish to 911 begging for help around 3 a.m. on May 9.
Officials translating the messages worked to figure out where she was.
The victim didn’t know what her location was, but relayed landmarks and other “identifiable information’ she could see from the home, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies began scouring the area as the call taker continued to text back and forth with the victim, the law enforcement agency said.
“After about twenty minutes of searching the area of Casitas Springs, the victim was found by deputies,” the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities then located and arrested suspect Gerardo Cruz, the sheriff’s office said.
He was charged with human trafficking, forcible rape, lewd acts upon a child, luring and sexual penetration with force.
He’s being held in custody on $500,000 bail, the sheriff’s office said.
The girl was treated and was staying with Ventura County Child Family Services before she is reunited with her family.
“The ability to send a text message to an emergency call center is relatively new technology,” the sheriff’s office said.
“This incident also utilized integrated translation technology as the call taker only spoke English and the victim only spoke and wrote in Spanish. The call taker was able to quickly interpret and text back a response in English, which was quickly re-translated to Spanish for the victim.”
