Kidnap horror: Teen on way to Australia before alleged attack

A 13-year-old girl who used a sign to alert bystanders after being driven across the US by her alleged kidnapper had left home to visit Australia.

A 13-year-old American girl who ran away from home to visit her friend in Australia was allegedly kidnapped, driven across the US and sexually assaulted in a terrifying ordeal.

The teenager, from San Antonio in Texas, was only rescued when a bystander spotted her holding up a handmade sign saying “help me” in a car parked in California earlier this month.

Texas man Steven Sablan, 61, was arrested at the scene before being charged with kidnapping and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

According to a criminal complaint, filed by FBI special agent Elizabeth Cardenas, the 13-year-old left home on July 6 without telling her parents.

She was planning to visit a friend she had met at school who moved to Australia last year, with the pair staying in touch through an online chatroom.

This undated photo, released by the U.S Department of Justice, shows the sign allegedly held up by the 13-year-old girl. Supplied

Her parents reported that she was missing on July 7, by which time Sablan had allegedly forced her into his vehicle near a bus stop, pulling out a gun and telling her: “If you don’t get in the car with me, I am going to hurt you.”

He initially told her “that he could take her to a cruise ship to visit her friend in Australia”, Ms Cardenas said, before telling her “that she would have to do something for him if he was going to do something for her”.

Sablan allegedly sexually assaulted her at least three times over two days as he drove from Texas through New Mexico and Arizona and into California.

On July 9, they stopped at a laundromat in Long Beach, where the girl wrote “help me” on a piece of paper. After a bystander called the police, she mouthed the word “help” to officers.

Touch Vong, who worked in the laundromat, told a local TV station that the girl looked “very frightened”. She said Sablan asked her when a nearby restaurant was open.

“I know the restaurant wasn’t open [on Sundays] but I said wait until 11 so they open,” Ms Vong said.

“If I didn’t say that … she might be gone.”

Sablan was arrested and found with handcuffs in his pocket, and a black plastic BB gun, a switchblade knife and more handcuffs inside his car.

Ms Cardenas said there had been a warrant for Sablan’s arrest over a burglary in Texas, and that he had previous robbery and drug convictions.

He faces life behind bars if convicted on both charges.

Originally published as Kidnap horror: Teen on way to Australia before alleged attack