Two teenage girls staged abduction in Seagoville to be with young men, detectives say
Two girls who authorities say staged an abduction that prompted an Amber Alert in Seagoville planned the scheme to be in the company of two young men, Seagoville police said Tuesday.
The girls were found Monday afternoon in a Plano motel room, and a 20-year-old Plano man was arrested in the case.
Seagoville police identified the suspect as Jose Penaloza-Estrada, who faces a charge of harboring a runaway child.
Additional charges could be filed in the case, Seagoville police said. Seagoville is about 50 miles east of Fort Worth.
The 16-year-old and 17-year-old girls had been at the Seagoville Trade Days flea market on Sunday with a friend of the families.
Both girls from East Texas and schoolmates separated from the adult and they could not be located when the flea market closed. The girls also did not answer their phones.
At 11:30 p.m. Sunday, one of the girls placed an alarming call to her mother, saying they had been abducted from the flea market, they were being held against their will and they were in danger.
The phone call originated from a Dallas motel. Dallas police responded to the scene, but the girls were not found.
An Amber Alert was then issued for the girls.
On Monday, Seagoville detectives obtained surveillance video of the girls from the Dallas motel, showing that the girls did not appear to be in danger. The video corroborated tips that the girls had staged the abduction.
During the investigation, authorities identified Penaloza-Estrada as a suspect in the case and found him in northeast Dallas. He told detectives he had rented a motel room in Plano.
Detectives went to the Plano motel room and found the two girls unharmed.
