Police Plead for Help in Search for Pregnant Girl, 10

Police pleaded for help Wednesday in finding a 10-year-old girl who is 8 1/2 months pregnant and in danger of losing her life when she gives birth to her child.

The girl, Cindy Garcia, ran away Sunday and may be following her 22-year-old boyfriend to his native state of Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

“We have not found either one of them. Every police agency you can think of has been asked to keep an eye out for them,” said Houston Police Department spokesman Rich King.

Police on Tuesday charged the boyfriend, Pedro Roman Sotelo, with aggravated sexual assault of a child, which carries a term of up to life in prison, and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was believed to have fled to Mexico but it was not known if he was traveling with Garcia, police said.

King said a radio station in Mexico reported that Sotelo had been captured by police. “But if that’s happened, it’s news to the people who are supposed to know,” he said.

Police said a 14-year-old girl thought to have run away with Garcia was found in Houston Wednesday but that she knew little about her friend’s whereabouts.

The two attended church together Sunday and Garcia told her “This is Pedro’s baby. . . . We’re going to Mexico,” a police statement said. It said the 14-year-old gave investigators names of other people to question about the missing girl.

Garcia and Sotelo have been together since she was 8. She was taken into custody Jan. 12 by social workers after she posed as a 14-year-old and tried to get welfare benefits, but ran away because she feared her child would be taken away.

Time is of the essence in finding the girl because she may be too young to have a normal birth and needs to be under a doctor’s care, Houston Assistant Police Chief John Gallemore said. “This is a medical emergency for a young person who is a victim,” he said, adding that anyone who knows her whereabouts should quickly notify police.

“We beseech them for help,” he said.

Police said some family members of Garcia and Sotelo had not cooperated with investigators because they were trying to protect the two. Further charges could be filed in the case, they said.

Social worker Frank Elizondo, who spoke to Garcia while she was in custody, said: “She doesn’t feel like she’s a child. She’s madly in love with this man and wants to marry him.”