A 13-year-old girl kidnapped and sexually abused by a 61-year-old man in Texas managed to escape from her assailant in California by drawing the attention of passersby with a distress note. The victim, locked in a parked car, managed to get the attention of passersby through a handwritten note that read “help me” (help me), taking advantage of the fact that her captor had been absent.
According to reports by the police and federal authorities in the United States, the victim had been kidnapped at gunpoint near a bus stop in San Antonio, Texas, on July 6.
The rescue occurred three days later, on July 9, in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, when officers responded to a call to the emergency number and found the “girl visibly distressed” and locked in a car that was parked, reports the press release from the police and US federal authorities.
“Several bystanders, concerned upon seeing the girl’s situation and reading her note, immediately called 911,” police said.
Shortly after, Steven Robert Sablan, 61, was arrested and charged this week with kidnapping of a minor and attempted sexual assault. The FBI investigates the case.
