A 41-year-old Texas truck driver has pleaded guilty to transporting an 11-year-old Prince George’s County girl from Maryland to engage in sex with her.
Prosecutors said Elmer Zelaya-Robles kidnapped the girl in February then called the family to say that he loved her and was going to take her to El Salvador and marry her. Zelaya-Robles was captured later that night after a trooper in Tennessee recognized the girl’s picture from a law enforcement and media alert.
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“This case demonstrates both the terrible danger that sexual predators pose to children and the heroic ability of law enforcement to make a difference,” said U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
Zelaya-Robles, of Dallas, was working for a Maryland trucking company and would stay with the family about twice each month, police said. He was related to the girl by marriage.
About a year before the abduction, he began calling the girl regularly.
Around 2 a.m. Feb. 13, Zelaya-Robles picked up the girl at her parents’ home and drove to Arlington to pick up his tractor-trailer. On the way to Texas, authorities say, Zelaya-Robles bought two boxes of condoms and a coffee. He had sex with the child in the sleeper area of the truck at least twice, prosecutors said.
About 12 hours after the abduction, the girl’s parents reported her missing to police.
Zelaya-Robles called her parents 30 minutes later and said the girl was with him. The truck driver told her father he was in love with his 11-year-old daughter, authorities said.
The family told him to return their child and that they had contacted police. Zelaya-Robles told the girl to pretend he was her father if they were stopped and questioned, according to charging documents. He then made several calls to arrange to cross the border into Mexico and reside in El Salvador.
Authorities issued an Amber Alert, and a highway patrolman in Tennessee spotted the truck and followed it to a truck stop. The trooper found the child in the sleeper area of the tractor-trailer and arrested Zelaya-Robles.
Zelaya-Robles faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6.
