HOUSTON – Additional charges have been filed against a Houston man accused of paying someone to drive a 16-year-old Idaho teenager to Houston to meet up with him.
Ruben Dario Visquerra Aguilar, 24 was originally taken into custody and charged with harboring a runaway in Harris County back in October. He also faced charges in Idaho for first-degree kidnapping and human sex trafficking of a child.
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Aguilar is now charged with trafficking of a child and sexual assault of a child in Harris County after a follow-up medical exam revealed that the girl was pregnant.
The teen packed a bag, left a note, and ran away from home on Oct. 10, according to the Boise Police Department. Detectives learned she had been talking to someone online.
“Through their investigation, detectives gathered information showing the teen had traveled through eastern Idaho, to Utah, and eventually to Texas,” the Boise Police Department wrote in a statement.
Aguilar allegedly paid $1,400 to someone to drive the teenage girl to Texas. The identity of the person who brought her to Houston remains unknown.
Police in Houston were contacted by Boise Police who shared Snapchat messages they had obtained between Aguilar and the teenage girl, according to court documents. Many of the messages were sexually explicit. Police were able to trace the IP address of the suspect and also pinged the phone of the girl, revealing the location of the home they were believed to be at.
Houston Police later went to the home and found Aguilar and the teenager inside. Aguilar was arrested there.
The girl had hickeys on her neck and while she told police they were hickeys, she did not disclose any other activities which happened between the two, according to court documents.
During an interview with police, court documents say Aguilar did not want to answer whether the two had any sexual contact. Aguilar allegedly told police he thought the entire situation was ok because he believed the teenager was about to turn 18.
In a follow-up medical exam in November, doctors in Idaho found the girl was pregnant.
Aguilar is in jail in Ada County, Idaho. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer, an ICE spokesperson told KPRC 2, adding that Aguilar is a Guatemalan national who entered the country illegally as an unaccompanied minor.