Ohio State Police report that a previously deported illegal alien was arrested this week after authorities discovered he had kidnapped a 15-year-old passenger in his car, forced the girl to perform various sex acts, and told her she was going to be his "housewife" as they traveled to Chicago where he would work.
An Ohio State trooper pulled over Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza, 35, just outside Toledo, but became suspicious something was wrong when he noted the age difference between Morales-Pedraza and the girl in his passenger seat. Neither occupants of the vehicle spoke English nor had identification. Quickly, highway patrol Trooper Mitch Ross called for a translator and alerted Customs and Border Protection.
The girl originally told the translator that she was 22-years-old, and Morales-Pedraza insisted they were only friends. State troopers decided to take the pair into a local police station for further questioning. Finally, after discovering lewd photos and videos of the sexual assaults on phones within the car, the teenager girl admitted she had been kidnapped in New Jersey, raped, and was being taken to Chicago. The girl was "treated at an Ohio hospital before the state’s child welfare agency made arrangements to get her back to her family in New Jersey."
Highway patrol Lt. Vern E. Fisher credits Trooper Ross with saving the girl's life and for trusting his instincts as well as following proper protocol.“Who knows what was going to happen to this girl when they got to Chicago,” Fisher added.
“You slow down, investigate and use proper resources to figure it out," Fisher noted. "Human trafficking is so hard to find and do anything about because the victims are typically brainwashed to think they’ve got to do what the suspect says.”
Morales-Pedraza is being detained by Border Patrol until authorities can investigate how exactly he came in contact with the underage girl and when he crossed back into the United States.