Fort Worth Mother Escapes Kidnappers In Hill County
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A mother of four was kidnapped from her home in the middle of the day, leaving a Fort Worth neighborhood on edge and her child alone in the house. The woman was held captive for hours before she escaped.
The woman did not want to be identified. Speaking in Spanish, she said she was taking groceries into her home when her kidnappers saw their opportunity and approached her with a lie.
"They told me my husband told them to come and paint the house," she said in Spanish.
She was suspicious. But when she tried to call her husband, the man snatched her cell phone from her. She tried to push him away and close the door. But another man came and pulled her out of the house and shoved into a waiting vehicle where another man was sitting behind the wheel.
The three strangers drove her through Tarrant, Johnson and Hill counties some 60 miles south to a field where there was a mobile home.
"They tied my arms and taped my mouth," she said. They also tied a bandana around her eyes.
There she sat, inside the mobile home with her wrists taped to the arms of a chair. Meantime, her husband received a strange phone call from a man. He remembers the voice saying, "Your wife is in the hospital. You need to pick up your kid." But her husband couldn't find her anywhere.
"I call police. Every hospital is checked. My wife is not there," he said.
About six hours later, he received another call. This one was from his wife. She told him she had escaped.
She said she slipped away when the men went outside.
She pulled her wrists free from the rope ties and yanked the tape off her mouth. Then, she opened a window and jumped out. It was dark by then. The men never saw her. She ran to a house and asked the homeowners for help.
The Hill County Sheriff caught one of the suspects, 36-year-old Juan Manuel Reye-DeLeon. The sheriff said he had told investigators they had demanded a ransom.
Neighbors said they have no idea why anyone would kidnap a mother, leaving her four-year-old child behind in the middle of the day. Neighbor Debbie Gillispie described the woman as, very nice, very quiet, always with her kids."
"She was taking care of her kids and taking care of her house," Gillispie said. "It's just kind of strange."
Roughed up but not seriously hurt, the victim, who is a mother of four, offers some advice for others.
"Don't open the door," she said. "It could be very dangerous."
The Hill County Sheriff says the kidnappers demanded a ransom. Fort Worth police are investigating the case with federal agencies as possibly related to illegal drugs or human trafficking.
