A 22-year-old illegal migrant from Honduras has been charged with aggravated kidnapping after allegedly holding a Chinese woman captive for five days, during which he repeatedly assaulted her and deprived her of food and water. Jose Carcamo was arrested on 14 July after police responded to a distress call about a woman screaming for help in East Houston. Doorbell camera footage reportedly shows Carcamo snatching the woman off the street and carrying her away as she struggled to escape, New York Post reported. According to court documents, Carcamo locked the woman in a room inside a trailer home, where she was tied up, beaten and sexually assaulted multiple times. She had no access to food or water throughout the ordeal. The woman, believed to be a victim of a human trafficking network, told investigators she had travelled from New York to Houston after being promised a better-paying job as a masseuse. Once she arrived, her passport was taken from her and she was confined to the trailer. Lieutenant John Klafka, head of the Harris County Sheriff’s adult special crimes unit, said the woman had spent several days travelling by car from New York. “She said she was a masseuse up in New York. She was offered a position down here in Houston that paid more money. So she was given transportation down here,” Klafka told local media. The situation turned violent when she tried to flee, prompting Carcamo to allegedly lock her in a closet, where she was eventually discovered by deputies. A witness had earlier reported seeing her running down the street before being forcibly taken back. “This is a very traumatic event. You know, 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. So we’ve got to do everything we can to ensure that she can trust us to do our jobs and find the rest of the people that are involved in this,” said Klafka. Authorities believe this case is connected to a broader trafficking network operating across state lines, and investigations are ongoing to identify other victims and suspects.
