A 17-year-old girl sent text messages to US emergency services saying she had been kidnapped two months earlier. She was located and rescued soon after sending her messages, US authorities reported on Thursday, May 16.
A unique rescue. A 17-year-old girl was released by emergency services on May 9 after being kidnapped in Mexico and forcibly brought to the United States, authorities announced Thursday, May 16, in a news release. As a victim of human trafficking, she managed to contact the emergency services, who were then able to help her.
Visual signals sent to emergency services
On May 9 around At 3 a.m., emergency services in Ventura County, which is east of Santa Barbara, California, received a text message from a young girl asking for help and explaining that she had been kidnapped in Mexico.
If she doesn’t know exactly where she is, she is able to provide visual reference points to emergency responders.
What follows is an exchange of messages between emergency services and her using a translation system where the teenager speaks Spanish.
Suspect arrested and detained
Police immediately went to work and after only about twenty minutes of searching, identified the young girl as being in the Casitas Springs area of Ventura County. Police went to the scene and released the teenager.
She was examined by emergency services and transferred to child welfare while she waited to be reunited with her family.
A preliminary investigation has been initiated. According to initial investigations, the young girl was a victim of human trafficking from Mexico to the United States. The operation would have been carried out two months earlier.
A suspect was also identified and taken into custody at the Todd Road Jail in Ventura County. He is especially suspected of human trafficking, rape and indecent acts against a minor. Appearing before a judge, he pleaded not guilty. His next hearing is set for May 22.
Sending text messages to emergency services, a new feature
The ability to send written messages to emergency services was recently introduced in Ventura County and should facilitate the exchange of information with emergency services when the victim cannot call because they are in a very noisy environment or in the event of domestic violence, f .eg LA Times.
It includes integrated translation software, which proved particularly useful in this case, as the victim’s messages in Spanish were translated into English for the operator, who could respond to him in English, and his message was immediately translated into Spanish for the teenager, CBS News explains.
