Illinois, United States.
A Honduran resident in Lake Villa, Illinois, United Stateswas arrested after the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office accused him of having sheltered a missing 13-year-old minor and subsequently committing sexual abuse against her, according to judicial authorities.
The accused was identified as Mateo Ramos Zúñiga22, who already had a deportation order issued in 2019, according to Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Patrick Windmoeller.
Ramos Zúñiga faces six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, considered class 2 felonies, in addition to one count of harboring a runaway minor, classified as a class A misdemeanor.
According to the investigation, the minor would have met the accused through the Internet. His mother reported the disappearance to Round Lake Beach Police in mid-April, which activated a search in which authorities tracked social media communications between the two.
According to prosecutor Windmoeller, the agents arrived at the defendant’s residence in Lake Villa looking for the minor, but Ramos Zúñiga initially denied their presence at the scene. Later, he admitted that the minor was there at that time.
During the interview with the authorities, the victim received emotional support and declared that she had conversations of a sexual nature with the accused through social networks, despite knowing his age. In a later statement, he also confirmed multiple sexual acts, according to the court record.
Authorities seized the defendant’s cell phone and bedding as part of evidence in the case. Likewise, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the accused would have tried to persuade the minor to eliminate evidence of the relationship.
Windmoeller stated that, due to the seriousness of the charges and the defendant’s lack of ties to the community, there was a risk of flight, so the Prosecutor’s Office requested his preventive detention, a measure that was granted by Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim.
For his part, public defender Gregg Wolpoff indicated that Ramos Zúñiga works in construction and that he had a possible alternative place of residence if he was released, where there would be no minors.
