A police affidavit has revealed new details about a woman who made a harrowing escape from kidnappers who kept her captive in an Edinburg home and who threatened to break her legs if she tried to leave.
Police were dispatched to 2912 Milestone in Edinburg at 9:05 a.m. Tuesday in reference to a woman who claimed that she’d been kidnapped.
Upon arrival, police made contact with the woman who said that she had been held against her will since the previous night. The woman said that she was able to make her escape when she asked her kidnappers to use the restroom. She was able to exit the house and wave someone down for help.
Investigators learned that the woman had paid money to enter the country. She had been transported to a residence in McAllen before being moved to another residence located on 326 Keystone. There, she stayed with a man known as “El Flaco.”
The woman told police that she felt uneasy at the new location and tried to sneak out through the front door of the residence. As the woman was walking away from the residence, a woman police identified as Stephanie Guadalupe Pena approached her in a white Chevrolet Traverse that was driven by “El Flaco.”
Pena allegedly pulled the woman by her hair and dragged her into the backseat of the Traverse before being taken back to the residence on Keystone.
At this point, the woman told police that she was stripped naked, and all of her belongings were taken from her. Pena also allegedly threatened to break the woman’s legs for running away.
Pena allegedly told the woman that “her freedom would be taken away from her as punishment.” She was also told that she would have to pay $200 per day for the 30 days that she would be forced to stay at the location.
Another man, identified as Abraham Briones, told the woman that she shouldn’t have tried to escape. He said that “she put her family in danger by having done so,” according to the affidavit. The woman identified Briones as the person who prepared food while she stayed at the location.
The woman told police that she was able to make her escape on the morning of July 5. She reportedly “snuck out of the house through a side door, exited the property through the back gate, and ran to a neighbor’s residence about a block away.”
Police were able to confirm the identities of Briones and Pena. Pena told police that knew that the woman had “crossed illegally,” and that she was waiting to be picked up and taken somewhere else. She admitted to taking the woman’s cell phone “because she was mad.”
Both Briones and Pena were placed under arrest and charged with smuggling and aggravated kidnapping.
A search warrant was obtained to search the Keystone residence, and four cellphones and two iPads were recovered.
On Wednesday, the police department received a call from a man named Josue Garcia Mendoza who stated that he lived at the Keystone residence and wanted the seized items returned to him.
The woman was able to identify Mendoza as “El Flaco.” She told police that he’d remained in contact with her family and had been requesting more money from them.
