In Mexico City Tuesday, a man was arrested for abusing teenage girls he kept imprisoned for seven years, fathering five children with them, before killing one of the girls and a 3-month-old baby they conceived.
Police say Jorge Iniestra, 32, became obsessed with his girlfriend, Clara Tapia’s teenage daughters in 2004. He soon pulled them out of school, and kept them locked inside a room in his mother’s house, unable to go outside, and even boarding up the windows.
Almost inconceivably, the abuse against these girls was hidden by his mother, brothers, sisters, and Tapia, their own mother, who helped ensure they did not escape.
Iniestra, a part-time taxi driver, sexually, physically, and emotionally abused the girls, having five children with them. They had to go to the bathroom in the room, and Iniestra forced their younger brother to clean up the room by hand. He also forced the boy to sell candles and collect cardboard to make money.
Sadly, prosecutors say Iniestra wound up beating one of the teenaged girls to death before he smothered one of the children he’d fathered with her, a three-month-old baby. He then put both bodies in the room with the other locked up girl, forcing her to be with it for more than month, before he and his brother dumped the body along a highway.
Finally, Tapia went to the police, which resulted in the childrens’ rescue.
Among the rescued children was a 3-month-old he’d fathered. That child was taken to the hospital with blunt head trauma as a result of being beaten by Iniestra.
Tapia’s remaining daughter is now 21, and the other children Iniestra fathered with the girls – now 2, 4, and 5 – have been put into protective custody.
Iniestra’s family members, including his mother and Tapia were arrested for helping him cover up the abuse.
Tapia was a school social worker when she met Iniestra. Police say she and her daughter are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, in which victims identify with their captor, as they defended Iniestra’s deplorable actions when questioned by police.
This horrific case is similar to that of Josef Fritzl who, in 2008, was arrested for holding his daughter Elisabeth captive for 25 years. He continuously raped and abused her during her imprisonment. She would have 7 seven of his children and one miscarriage before she was finally able to get out of the house and speak to police who had already become suspicious of Fristzl. Elisabeth was 42 years old, and their oldest child was 19.
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Guillen Pimentel has been identified and a warrant out for his arrest, but he has not yet been apprehended.
