Kidnapped teen, 14, sends friends her Snapchat location to help cops nab the three men who were abusing her
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: The friends of a teenage girl, 14, used Snapchat to help authorities track her down and rescue her from a motel room.
The girl had been drugged by three men before she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted. The victim had been contacted by her friends via Snapchat and had conveyed that she had been kidnapped and was at an unknown location. Her friends were able to track her down using Snapchat’s location services which updates the location of the device every time that the app is open provided that the user has chosen to share their location on the map.
The teenager was tracked down to a motel ‘E-Z 8’ in San Jose where she was being held by the trio. The authorities in California arrived at the scene and found a 55-year-old man Albert Thomas Vasquez leaving the motel room where the girl was being held. The San Jose Police Department shared in a press release on Thursday, January 16, that Vasquez had met the victim on Tuesday, January 14, morning and had drugged her to make her ‘incapacitated’. He had then called two accomplices- 34-year-old Antonio Quirino Salvado and 31-year-old Hediberto Gonzalez Avarenga Salvador who had helped put the victim in the vehicle against her will.
Vasquez had sexually assaulted the girl in the vehicle before driving to the motel and had then sexually assaulted her in the motel again. He was arrested and taken to the Santa Clara County Jail. He has been charged with several felonies including kidnapping to commit rape, digital penetration with a child under 14 years with force, false imprisonment, lewd act with a child 14 or 15 years with force, and rape by intoxication or controlled substance.
His two accomplices were arrested the following day and charged with kidnapping.
Police have asked anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Anthony Barajas of the San Jose Police Department’s Sexual Assault Investigations Unit at 408-277-4102 or to call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line on (408) 947-STOP (7867)