Two teens arrested in kidnapping of Weslaco attorney, client
WESLACO — Police have arrested two teens on charges they kidnapped an immigration attorney and her teenage client.
The men, ages 18 and 19, allegedly entered Jennifer Harbury's house at 1020 S. Missouri Ave. in Weslaco early Wednesday morning and took her hostage along with her 18-year-old client, a native of Guatemala.
Harbury said the men stormed into her house, each one holding a gun.
"They were talking and they wanted money - and that's a good thing," Harbury said. "They didn't want to kill me."
The men forced her and her client into their car at gunpoint and tried to withdraw money using her credit cards, but they seemed to have trouble getting the money, she said.
The pair dumped Harbury and the teen unharmed at a canal north of Mercedes, said David Molina, a Weslaco police spokesman. Harbury said she hid underwater until the kidnappers left the scene. She then caught up with her client and called for help at a nearby church.
Police and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested the pair of suspected kidnappers, both resident aliens, at their Weslaco homes late Thursday morning, Molina said.
"It was basically a 24-hour, nonstop investigation," he said.
Investigators believe Harbury's teenage client knew their captors before the kidnapping, Molina said. Whether her client helped set up the kidnapping remains under investigation.
"We're still figuring everything out," Molina said.
Authorities refused to disclose the suspects' names until they appear at an arraignment hearing set for this afternoon.
Harbury, a 58-year-old staff attorney at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in Weslaco, said she had taken in her client after an immigration judge released him on bond about four months ago.
The young man had been mistreated growing up in Guatemala and after he arrived in the United States, she said. He had been staying at her house for about the past four months.
"He had no place to go," Harbury said. "He's like a godson to me now."
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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.
