Border Patrol Agent Esteban Manzanares Kidnapped and Sexually Assaulted Migrants Who Surrendered to Him for Help.

 

Border Patrol Agent Esteban Manzanares Kidnapped and Sexually Assaulted Migrants Who Came to Him Seeking Asylum

Esteban Manzanares was a U.S. Border Patrol agent working near McAllen, Texas.

On March 12, 2014, three Honduran migrants crossed the Rio Grande and attempted to surrender to him.

They were a mother, her teenage daughter, and a 14-year-old family friend.

They were seeking asylum.

Instead of processing them, Manzanares drove them to an isolated wooded area.

According to federal investigators, Manzanares sexually assaulted one of the teenagers and brutally attacked her and the mother, slashing their wrists, twisting their necks, and leaving them bleeding in the brush.

Then he took the 14-year-old girl.

Manzanares drove her to his apartment in Mission, Texas, where investigators said he tied her down and repeatedly sexually assaulted her.

The injured mother managed to activate a Border Patrol surveillance camera, alerting other agents.

Authorities found the wounded mother and teenager and traced Manzanares to his home.

When FBI and federal agents arrived on March 13, Manzanares shot and killed himself.

The 14-year-old girl was rescued alive from his apartment.

Because Manzanares died before he could be prosecuted, there was no criminal trial or conviction. The case was instead investigated by federal authorities, and the victims later pursued a federal lawsuit alleging that government agencies failed to properly monitor and stop him.

The detail that belongs at the center of this story is why these women encountered him in the first place.

They weren't running from Border Patrol. They surrendered to an agent because they believed they were finally safe. He used that fucking trust to turn their search for refuge into a nightmare.