By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A man found by the U.S. Marshals Service, hiding under a bed in Lubbock, Texas, has pleaded guilty to attempted rape and abduction of two teenage girls last summer in Bowling Green.
David Ramos Contreras, 29, of Lubbock, will be sentenced on Feb. 22, by Wood County Common Pleas Judge Matthew Reger.
Contreras was one of four men staying at the Days Inn in Bowling Green while working in the area last June. The two teenage sisters, ages 13 and 14, were also staying at the hotel with family.
Two of the suspects were apprehended within days of the charges, but a national manhunt ensued for the other two – Juan Garcia Rios Adiel and Arnulfo Ramos.
Those men remain at large.
“I do not believe either have been apprehended,” Bowling Green Police Lt. Dan Mancuso said this morning.
Simon Thomas Simon Juan, 24, was arrested by Bowling Green Police Division the day after the mother of the two girls took them to Wood County Hospital. Juan has also pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November to 14 months in prison.
A few days later after the assaults, David Ramos Contreras, 29, was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service, in Lubbock, Texas.
Police initially received a tip that Contreras was seen at the Walmart in Spring Meadows, in Lucas County, shortly after the assaults. A store video captured images of Contreras walking with two women. Police were able to locate the women and determined they were not connected to the suspect.
“They believed he needed some assistance,” Mancuso said last summer. “They believed they were doing a good deed helping someone out.”
Information was then developed placing Contreras in Lubbock, after investigators for the U.S. Marshals Service and Bowling Green Police followed leads.
Contreras, who was found by marshals hiding under a bed in Lubbock, was extradited back to Ohio.
Nationwide warrants were issued for the remaining two men at large, and numerous law enforcement agencies, including ICE, are working to find them.
The case received national attention, being posted on CNN news last summer.
Bowling Green Police Division received calls from across the nation, Mancuso said last summer.
According to BG Police Chief Deputy Justin White, all four suspects were found to have “fraudulent paperwork” documenting their status as immigrant workers. Contreras had previously been deported, White said last summer.
Police don’t believe there was any connection between the victims and the suspects other than they were all staying at the hotel.
“The information we’re receiving is the suspects were living at the Days Inn as well as our victims,” White said.
