Posted on 12/27/2025 2:16:55 PM PST by nickcarraway
BA Texas teenager was rescued by her father after she was forced into a truck at knifepoint on Christmas Day, police said.
Patrol deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office were called to an area home at about 4:50 p.m. on Thursday, the agency said on social media. The officers were told that the teenager, 15, had taken her dog out for a walk but had not returned. Her father then used parental controls to track her phone's location and find it in a "secluded, partially wooded area" about two miles away.
The sheriff's office said the father, who has not been identified, traveled to the site and found his daughter and her dog inside a maroon-colored pickup truck, along with a "partially nude" man. The father helped the teen escape and brought her back home, where they called the sheriff's office.
Investigators determined that the male suspect had threatened the teenager with a knife. Witness descriptions allowed police to identify the suspect's vehicle and identify the driver as Giovanni Rosales Espinoza, 23.
Espinoza was taken into custody without incident, the sheriff's office said. He has been charged with aggravated kidnapping and indecency with a child. He is being held in the Montgomery County Jail with no bond, the sheriff's office said. An investigation is ongoing.
The video player is currently playing an ad. CBS affiliate KHOU reported that the girl is recovering with her family. The family told KHOU that none of them knew the suspect and that they are thankful their daughter is safe.
"Christmas is a day meant for joy, but this man chose to shatter that joy by targeting a child," Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said on social media. "I am incredibly proud of our deputies and detectives who worked tirelessly to ensure this dangerous predator was swiftly apprehended and is now off our streets."
That is what came to me also, as many can be expected to express that on "social media," as well as that the father waited for the police. The fact that it was the father who recused her is itself non-pc.
Yes, but Texas isn’t as far away as El Salvidor and the guy is just as much of a Maryland man as his previous heartthrob
"The video player is currently playing an ad."
Well, I haven’t seen them, but I think in the 2010’s he became known for movies where he rescues his daughters from bad guys.
Oh good grief get over the whole “underage girl alone” CRAP!
The more we hide, the more dangerous the outside becomes.
Predators THRIVE in areas where NOBODY dares go.
As a child that grew up in “little Detroit” I find the wholly suffocating “values” you and your over-protective ilk force upon all children literally suffocating.
NOT allowing children to develop their “sixth sense” when it comes to odd characters and weird interactions DOES THEM MORE HARM THAN GOOD!
Why all the self congratulations?
Cuz all the forms were filled out properly and the reports were spot on so the prosecutor would have a clean case.
[of course, sarc.]
Mr. "Partially Nude Male" is lucky to be alive. I'm a mom and I might have clocked him good and dead.
The article doesn't say, but maybe the dad tied the guy up and took his keys so that the police could round him up. The dad made the popo's jobs easier that day, any way you look at it.
Sounds like you believe the journalist got straight A’s in J-school. Whereas I think it was poor quality reportage. :-)
I had the same thoughts as you about the text; but it seems obvious the dad had some way of tracking her. It’s unlikely he sat at a desktop to locate her and then wrote it down and drove there; it’s 99.999% certain he had a cellphone on him. My guess is that by the time the dad got the attention of the police, he and his daughter were almost home, which is where officers or detectives met them to take a report.
Something is off about the story.
Something is off about the story.
Yes, he did have a means of finding her...by using the tracking he put on her phone. Smart DAD!!!!
He had to have his own phone or he’s the only other person in the universe beside myself who doesn’t....I have yet to meet that person!!! My grandson (turned 17 at Christmas) visited me and sat WITH his phone in his hands the whole time he was here!!! I say “visited” - nope - not much of that going on!
No - I know better than to expect ANY journalist today to pass an exam in journalism!!!
“”Her father then used parental controls to track her phone’s location””
Which part?
Free Republic has no “Like” button because the expectation is that people will make thoughtful Reply posts that add to the quality of the content on the thread.
Regrettably, this has become less common than it used to be.
Even our formerly “microwave” society had the wherewithal to post replies with content that increased the knowledge value of the thread.
We are no longer a “microwave” society; we are a “Like button” society wherein the effort of anything beyond a cursory, one-click “uh-huh” has become to much to ask.
I am not insulting the father, but the police would have found his body at the scene where I found her.
from the movie Taken.
I will find you and I will kill you.
Thanks. I’m catching up that three film series now that I have heard of it.
Well, this father will be around to help her if anything else happens. But I understand the sentiment.
No way a dead partial nude man kidnapping a 15 year old will be prosecuted in Texas.
I live in TN and no way a prosecutor would even try to make that case here.
I was wondering, but probably so the dog didn’t call attention to the crime sooner?
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