Guatemalan man arrested in Chandler accused of kidnapping 14-year-old Kansas girl

By Ford Hatchett

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    CHANDLER, Arizona (KNXV) — A 23-year-old man is facing serious charges after allegedly kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from Kansas and bringing her to Arizona.

The girl had been missing since July 20 and authorities tracked her cell phone to an Extended Stay America hotel in Chandler.

When officers arrived at the hotel, staff confirmed a man named Cristian Leonardo Caal Mucu was registered to room 431. Police were able to locate the missing girl alone in the hotel room.

“She made plans with the suspect to leave with him in the middle of the night without her parents’ knowledge,” court records said.

According to police, the girl told detectives she met Caal-Mucu about two years ago through his sister when she was babysitting the sister’s child.

The girl reported that Caal-Mucu’s sister’s husband picked her up around 2 a.m. on July 20 from her home in Kansas, and they drove to Arizona, arriving at the hotel 14 hours later.

Police later located Caal Mucu at his workplace and brought him to the Chandler Police Department for questioning. According to court records, Caal-Mucu is a Guatemalan citizen who is in the United States illegally.

During the interview, Caal Mucu admitted to bringing the girl to Arizona and engaging in sexual conduct with her multiple times, according to the police report.

“The state views these offenses rather seriously,” prosecutors said during Caal-Mucu’s initial court hearing.

Prosecutors also noted concerns about “the defendant being in the country illegally and having multiple identifications.”

Through a translator, Caal-Mucu told the judge that the 14-year-old was his girlfriend.

“I’m not kidnapping anybody, and I knew what I was doing was a felony, and I discussed it with her, and I understand it’s a felony, and I would like to be responsible if she ends up pregnant,” Caal-Mucu said.

He claimed he was saving the girl from an abusive family, but the judge rejected that explanation.

“OK, but what you did is illegal in this country,” the judge responded.

The judge ordered Caal-Mucu held on a $50,000 cash-only bond.

“We both know the age difference but just want to let you know that she is my girlfriend and I can pay the bond as well,” Caal-Mucu told the court, before asking if he could pay his bond in installments.

ABC15 spoke with the local sheriff’s office in Kansas who had been searching for the missing girl. They declined to comment on the case to protect the young girl’s identity and location, but praised the collaboration between different agencies, calling it an example of excellent investigative work.

ABC15 spoke with the Chandler Police Department, who say they received a call from a Kansas sheriff’s office on July 31 about a missing 14-year-old girl.

“They provided information that they had a 14-year-old female juvenile that was missing from her jurisdiction. They had obtained her location via a social media account, she was showing at hotel here in Chandler,” Sgt. Aaron Lowe who oversees Chandler PD’s Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit said.

Chandler PD’s HEAT Unit responded to the hotel and successfully found and rescued the girl.

“When I texted the case agent, we got her, it was just a huge relief and I think everybody felt that,” Lowe said.

The department’s Criminal Apprehension Unit then tracked down 23-year-old Cristian Caal-Mucu at his place of work.

“We’re talking about a 14-year-old female juvenile here and she can’t provide consent to an adult male that is going to commit sex acts with her,” Lowe said.

Sergeant Aaron Lowe says this case had a positive outcome when many cases involving missing children don’t end successfully.

“It’s scary to think about but I do, it is concerning this happened so easily for this 14-year-old girl in a jurisdiction I’d never heard of. So with the amount of missing runaway kids and teenagers in the nation it just makes you wonder what’s actually occurring that we don’t know about,” Lowe said.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office says Caal-Mucu is still in custody but is scheduled to be released with electronic monitoring.

Parents are urged to “know who your children are communicating with and spending time with.”

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