County girl safe at home

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

August 14, 2007 04:09 pm

— An 11-year-old Wynnewood area girl is back home after running away this past weekend in what authorities are instead considering a child abduction case.
Garvin County deputies believe the note from the girl explaining why she was leaving home Saturday came at the prompting of a 22-year-old Sulphur man, who ultimately drove the girl to Texas before both were soon tracked down.
Now in custody on a variety of criminal complaints is Elias Carbajal Cruz.
A friend of the girl’s family, Cruz is accused of enticing the pre-teen into running away from her rural Wynnewood home before he then took her south.
“We’re investigating his enticement of this girl,” said Sgt. Jim Mullett of the county sheriff’s office.
“Yes she wrote a note saying she was leaving, but we believe he enticed her to do that,” he said.
“This was an enticement, him telling her what to do and promising her a better life.”
The case got going quickly after the girl’s mother woke up Saturday morning and discovered her daughter was missing.
Also discovered was a note written by the girl, which reportedly described her intention to run away from home because of how unhappy she was there.
“According to the little girl’s letter she felt she was being mistreated at the household with things like chores,” Mullett said.
Reports show Cruz had often visited the girl and her parents at their home.
The girl’s mother told authorities she had destroyed the different notes the girl had written to Cruz.
With the case at that time considered a runaway, deputies soon learned an area resident had in the early morning hours Saturday given a ride to a girl matching the description of the one missing.
It turned out this was in fact the missing girl, who was walking southbound on U.S. 77 carrying three backpacks when the motorist gave the girl a ride to Sulphur.
Once in Sulphur a man, later identified as Cruz, was there.
“Right now we’re investigating if sexual assault occurred there,” Mullett said.
From there Cruz and the girl drove south and into Texas, which could potentially take the case federal with a kidnapping allegation.
That still couldn’t hide them away from authorities as deputies here learned the girl had used the motorist’s cell phone to call Cruz during the ride to meet him in Sulphur.
Federal officials using a satellite global positioning system in Cruz’ cell phone were quickly able to track his location to a Wal-Mart store in an undisclosed city in Texas.
Local police officers soon made contact with Cruz as both he and the girl were taken into custody.
“This is considered a kid stealing case in Garvin County,” Mullett said.
“They’re investigating child molestation in Murray County, and the FBI is looking at a kidnapping charge,” he said.
“She’s safe and back with her parents. Right now we’re in the process of having him extradited back to Garvin County.”