A U.S. Border Patrol agent was found dead inside his home, located in southern Texas, responsible for kidnapping and raping three women who had illegally entered the country, authorities reported on Thursday.
According to the Miami Herald, the FBI thinks that Esteban Manzanares, a Border Patrol agent found dead on Thursday, might have been responsible of injuring a woman last Wednesday night in McAllen, close to the border with Mexico.
The woman told US Customs and Border Protection that she and her two minor daughters were attacked by a man, which started a search and rescue mission which led to finding the attacked minors.
The Brownsville Herald reported that Manzanares had found the family on Wednesday close to Abram while he was on duty, in the brush close to the Rio Grande, where he raped the woman and then sliced her wrists open with a knife.
Later, the agent sexually abused the 14-year-old minor and tried to break her neck, leaving her unconscious in the are
The second daughter, also 14-years-old, was kidnapped and taken to Manzanares' apartment on 4300 South Shary Road, where she was tied and gagged so she couldn't escape or scream. According to the quoted newspaper, the agent returned to work to finish his shift, and when he came back home, before Thursday midnight, he sexually abused the minor.
The investigation of the agents that helped the injured woman, a 32-year-old Honduran national who illegally crossed the border with her two daughters, took them to the agent's house, where they found him dead and managed to rescue the girl who was still kidnapped.
Although for the moment authorities have not confirmed the agent's cause of death, first investigations point to suicide.
FBI spokesperson in San Antonio, Michelle Lee, told the Associated Press that "We believe he is the person responsible for the kidnappings and abuses against the three," although she did not reveal any further details since the investigation is still ongoing.