Girl Sends Hair-Raising Message on Snapchat

3 suspects are arrested in California kidnapping case
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2020 12:30 PM CST
Girl Sends Hair-Raising Message on Snapchat
Albert Thomas Vasquez, Antonio Quirino Salvador and Hediberto Gonzalez Avarenga.   (San Jose Police Dept.)

A teenage girl used Snapchat to send her friends a horrifying message: She'd been kidnapped. Seems her friends used the app to spot her location and then called the cops, who rushed to the E-Z 8 Motel on Tuesday and arrested a man as he left the premises, NBC News reports. The girl, who hasn't been identified, was found inside a second-floor room. Now prosecutors have hit Albert Thomas Vasquez, 55, with various charges including kidnapping to commit rape, digital penetration of a child under 14 years with force, and false imprisonment.

His alleged accomplices, Antonio Quirino Salvador and Hediberto Gonzalez Avarenga, were arrested the next day and charged with conspiracy and kidnapping, per BuzzFeed. Seems Vasquez met the girl in the city Capitola on Tuesday, gave her drugs until she was incapacitated, and called his fellow suspects—who all put her in a car and sexually assaulted her. Police say the men then took her to the San Jose motel, where Vasquez assaulted her again. Snapchat is yet to comment, but has said users can share their locations with friends they choose, and updates when the app is open. (Another scary Snapchat story involves a college student who made a fake image of himself.)

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