Edinburg police on Tuesday identified a third suspect arrested after a woman held against her will escaped her alleged captors and waved someone down for help last week.
Abraham Briones, a 22-year-old Edinburg resident, was charged with aggravated kidnapping and smuggling of persons.
The Monitor learned of Briones’ involvement last week after obtaining a probable cause affidavit that detailed the woman’s escape.
Briones was charged alongside 21-year-old Stephanie Guadalupe Pena and 21-year-old Josue Eduardo Garcia-Mendoza, both Edinburg residents, who also face counts of aggravated kidnapping and smuggling of persons.
The alleged kidnapping was reported at 9:05 a.m. on July 5 when police responded to a home in the 2900 block of Milestone in Edinburg. A woman there told officers she had been held against her will at another home since July 4, but managed to escape the residence after asking her captors if she could use the restroom.
That was the second time she tried to escape.
In the first attempt, the affidavit said she left through the residence’s front door, but was caught by Pena as she walked away from the home.
Pena reportedly pulled the woman by her hair, dragged her into a white Chevrolet Traverse and took her back to the residence where she had been held, 326 Keystone.
Investigators said the woman was then stripped naked, had all of her belongings taken away and that Pena threatened to break her legs if she tried to escape.
The suspects also allegedly extorted her, telling her she would have to pay $200 a day for the 30 days they would force her to stay at the residence, according to the affidavit.
Both Pena and Briones remain jailed at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on a total of $100,000 in bonds apiece. Garcia is being held on a total of $105,000 in bonds.
