Who is Andres Pinto? Amber alert suspect claims he didn't abduct Zuriah Castillo, 14, and Jaylynn Miller, 16
A suspect in the abduction of two teenage girls has approached the police in a bid to clear his name. An Amber alert was issued late on Saturday night for 14-year-old Zuriah Castillo and 16-year-old Jaylynn Miller. According to the New Mexico State Police and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 37-year-old Andre Pinto is believed to have abducted the girls from a gas station on the Santo Domingo Pueblo.
A photograph of Pinto along with his car details was a part of the alert that was sent across. Authorities say Pinto was in a maroon 1991 Cadillac Deville with New Mexico license plate 514WML. However, Pinto has argued that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping and was let off by the police after relaying his side of the story. Police are yet to respond to his claim.
Who are Zuriah Castillo and Jaylynn Miller?
Zuriah Castillo is 5'5", weighs 130 lbs, and has shoulder-length bleach blonde dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a white v-neck t-shirt and black jeans, according to Missing Kids. Jaylynn Miller is 5', 112 lbs, has shoulder-length brown hair that's been dyed red, and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a white v-neck t-shirt, black jeans, and Vans shoes.
Who is Andres Pinto?
Pinto called the police immediately after seeing his name on the alert. “I didn't do any of that. I didn't kidnap nobody. I didn't take no little kids,” he said while pleading his innocence in an interview with KOB. Pinto was in the company of the aunt of one of the girls and she got a call from one of the teens to ask for a ride to some place in Albuquerque. “So she asked me 'Can we go up to Santo Domingo to go get her?' I says ‘Yeah, let's go,’” he told the outlet.
Pinto added that he and the female dropped the teenage girls at a hotel in Albuquerque on Saturday evening and haven't seen them since. “Every single cell phone in the state of New Mexico got my name, got the description of my car,” Pinto said, adding that he was shocked to see his name on the alert.
Pinto made an immediate call to the police after seeing it and is not in custody at the moment. “I'm right here. I have nothing to hide. Guilty people don't talk to police. Guilty people don't call the police. Guilty people don't do interviews,” Pinto said. He also told the outlet that the police didn't try to establish contact with him before sending out the alert.
“Why couldn't they reach out? Why couldn't they have called me on messenger? Why couldn't they hit me up on Facebook? All my stuff is public, you know what I mean? I mean, you got ahold of me. You reached out and said, ‘Hey what's up.’ Why couldn't they have done the same?” he told the outlet.
Pinto didn't shy away from admitting his criminal past and admitted that it had just been a year since he was out of prison. “I committed crimes in the past, yes. But that's not me. This right now, this situation I'm going through right now. I mean, who does that?” he said. Pinto was charged with multiple violent crimes but he added that his past has nothing to do with the abduction case and the Amber alert that was issued.
Anyone with information about the girls’ whereabouts are asked to call the Bureau of Indian Affairs at (505) 346-2868 or dial 911.