Insets left to right: Michelle Garcia, Crystal Garcia, Mache Carney, Juan Pablo Castro, and Maynard Lefevers (Austin Police Department). Background: The house on Bitter Creek where the quintet allegedly kept a woman captive for months in South Austin, Tex. (Google Maps).
Five people in the Texas Hill Country are behind bars after a half-nude and injured woman was rescued from months of involuntary confinement, according to law enforcement in the Lone Star State.
Michelle Garcia, 51, Crystal Garcia, 21, Mache Carney, 32, Juan Pablo Castro, 30, and Maynard Lefevers, 21, stand accused of one count each of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, injury to the elderly or disabled with intentional bodily harm, and unlawful restraint, the Austin Police Department announced in a press release last week.
On Oct. 30, officers responded to a welfare check request marked “urgent” at a residence on Bitter Creek Drive in South Austin.
There, the alleged victim was found outside the house and handcuffed to what police described as “a piece of exercise equipment.”
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Responding officers worked to remove the woman from her predicament with assistance from local EMS and firefighters. Ultimately, authorities said they had to cut through “heavy metal links” in order to release her safely due to “the condition of the restraints.”
“The woman showed signs of physical distress and had visible injuries consistent with prolonged restraint,” police said in the press release. “The woman told officers she had been held at the residence for several months and was not allowed to leave.”
After the woman was released, she was taken to a nearby hospital for “evaluation and treatment,” according to law enforcement. She is said to have remained under medical supervision as of last Thursday, though her current status and location is not presently known.
The defendants in the case were quickly apprehended.
“While officers were assisting the woman, multiple adults began exiting the residence,” police said. “Those individuals were detained while officers secured the scene to ensure there were no additional victims or potential threats inside. Three young children were also located at the property. They were safely removed and placed in the care of Child Protective Services for safety and support.”
Police only became aware of the situation after a 911 caller reported a woman repeatedly screaming for help, according to an arrest affidavit recently obtained by the Austin American-Statesman.
The exercise equipment was eventually identified as a punching bag stand that was jammed into a gate of a fence, according to the affidavit. The woman is said to have been locked up with rusty restraints and was naked from the waist down when police found her.
Signs of intentional and prolonged violence were readily visible when police found the victim, authorities say. The woman was covered in open wounds and lacerations; she also had swollen wrists and was missing several pieces of flesh from her hands and her feet.
Telltale scars, described as extensive, marred the woman”s body — and appeared consistent with repeatedly being shot by a BB gun over a long period of time, according to medical staff who spoke to law enforcement. The victim’s face was also beaten, police said. Such abuse, the woman said, was punishment for trying to leave.
Investigators would go on to recover a green BB from some of the victim’s clothing, police claimed. At the hospital, a scan showed the woman had another BB lodged in her right eye.
In an ensuing interview, the victim told law enforcement she was friends with one of the women who lived in the house — and that she often visited the residence. Until something profoundly changed.
“[O]ne day they decided they didn’t like her anymore and no longer allowed her to leave,” the affidavit reads.
In their own interviews with police, the defendants allegedly said the woman was a longtime family friend who actually lived at the house on Bitter Creek, the affidavit says. Some defendants allegedly admitted she was “restrained” in the yard as of late to keep her from leaving.
A series of reasons was allegedly given for the confinement.
Michelle Garcia allegedly said she began handcuffing the woman outside because she would often use the restroom in the yard — and the defendant did not want the neighbors to see that.
Carney, however, allegedly said the woman was handcuffed in order to prevent her from stealing — again citing neighborly concerns.
Carney, for her part, said the woman at first agreed to be confined, police say. This justification, however, was more or less disputed by Crystal Garcia, according to law enforcement. The younger Garcia allegedly described the victim’s ability to consent as “50/50.”
Several defendants claimed the victim had mental health issues, police say.
Investigators would go on to sketch out what they claim was the eventual routine decided upon by the house’s adult inhabitants.
The woman was fed once per day, a single plate of food for dinner, because she had become “chunky,” Michelle Garcia allegedly said. The woman was forced to sleep outside and was typically handcuffed with both hands behind her back, according to the affidavit.
Castro, when interviewed, allegedly admitted to purchasing the BB gun specifically “to shoot her” because he did not want to touch her. The man, in a voluble confession, said he often returned home from work, retrieved the rifle-style electric gun from his closet, and then “chase her around the yard” as he fired pellets, police claim.
“I [expletive] hate her,” Castro, Carney’s husband, allegedly told police when asked to account for the BB gun attacks, the affidavit says.
Authorities claim a 4-year-old boy provided an independent account of the BB gun regime — allegedly saying his father, Castro, shot the woman when she was “bad” and his mother, Carney, watched the shootings and forced the woman to sleep outside. The victim’s screams, the little boy allegedly said, were audible inside the house.
On Oct. 29, the woman said, “she got in trouble” because her pants fell down, according to the affidavit. That apparent infraction resulted in multiple defendants punishing her with the BB gun. After that, the victim said, she was handcuffed and left outside overnight — without any pants on — as temperatures fell into the 40s. That night, the woman said she begged and cried to be released, but was threatened with more and worse violence if her pleas continued, police say.
Each suspect is detained in the Travis County Jail on $305,000 bail.
