A 22-year-old man is in police custody in Houston, Texas, after allegedly kidnapping and assaulting a woman, and then locking her up in a closet for days.
Police say Jose Armando Carcamo-Perdomo, who is a Honduras national, was seen on video dragging a screaming woman into a trailer.
After searching his premises, police found a 44-year-old Chinese female boarded up in a closet.
Neighbors alerted police after seeing a man dragging a screaming woman down the street
Image credits: Curated Lifestyle/Unsplash (Not the actual photo)
According to local media, police were called to the trailer park home after neighbors reported a strange occurrence.
They said they saw a woman come running out of a trailer down the street, before a man grabbed her, kicking and screaming, and carried her back into the trailer.
Video taken by the neighbors shows a figure in red carrying a clearly distressed woman in black pants past a fence where dogs were barking.
Police first came to the premises and spoke to a man who lived there, but he said he had no idea who the woman was.
Image credits: KPRC 2 Click2Houston
Lt. John Klafka, of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, told media that the man “knew there was someone in the house, but he claimed to have never seen her or said it was a woman that lived there but didn’t know her, didn’t see her, has never had any interactions with her."
Eventually, police were able to obtain consent to enter the trailer home.
What they found inside was disturbing.
Police heard a faint knocking and found a woman bound inside a closet
Image credits: KPRC 2 Click2Houston
Police told the media that once inside the trailer home, they heard a faint knocking sound that they followed into a bedroom.
They found a closet with a board screwed over it to keep it securely shut.
When deputies opened the door, they found a Chinese national inside with her hands bound. She said she had been in there for days without food or water and had been s*xually assaulted multiple times.
Image credits: KPRC 2 Click2Houston
In an interview with Lt. John Klafka, of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, various media reported that, prior to arriving in Houston, the woman had been a masseuse in New York.
“She was offered a position down here in Houston that paid more money. So she was given transportation down here. Someone drove her,” Klafka told local media.
Carcamo was arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping and assault and is being held in the Harris County jail house.
Police are widening their investigation to include possible human trafficking
Media says police are now looking for additional suspects in the case, who could be linked to a larger human trafficking operation.
“He obviously is not the one that drove her from New York," Klafka told local media. “So there’s that, he’s not the person that drove her from the first location in Houston. And, we know there’s other people involved.”
Police said the woman said her passport was taken from her when she arrived in Houston.
Carcamo maintains innocence and plans to fight the charges
Image credits: KPRC 2 Click2Houston
“Our client, Mr. Jose Carcamo, is shocked by the serious allegations brought forth against him and firmly maintains his complete innocence. We will vigorously defend against these accusations and will not litigate this case in the press."
Image credits: KPRC 2 Click2Houston
Media reports that the victim, whose identity has not been made public, is in a safe and undisclosed location getting counseling and medical care.
Klafka described how harrowing the incident was for the victim: “You’re in a foreign country. You were brought from one giant city to another that’s halfway across the country south. And she has no friends, no family. Nobody is here for her. “
Carcamo entered the U.S. illegally in 2020, his case was dropped in 2023
Image credits: Hermes Rivera/Unsplash (Not the actual photo)
For their part, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE, has also put out a statement about Carcamo, explaining that he had entered the U.S. illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, in 2020.
Six months afterward, he was stopped by police in a traffic-related incident and was given a notice to appear in court.
When he didn’t, ICE said: “The government exercised prosecutorial discretion under the immigration enforcement priorities at the time, and his immigration case was dismissed in 2023.”
The topic of illegal immigrants is a hot button issue for many people online
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