CARLSBAD, Calif. (KGTV) - The sister of an Orange County teenager whose pleas for help on Interstate 5 prompted 911 calls is explaining the family’s efforts to take the girl to rehab.
California Highway Patrol officials said other drivers reported seeing the girl with her hands and feet tied Monday about 7 p.m. Officers pulled over the Toyota Corolla at south I-5 and Cannon Road in Carlsbad and found the girl restrained with tape over her mouth.
The girl’s father told the CHP he and his 21-year-old daughter were driving the girl to a drug rehab facility in Mexico. The sister told 10News the girl was bound because her family didn’t want her to escape.
RELATED: Teen bound and gagged in car leads to 911 calls
The 17-year-old girl has been doing meth for the past year, dropped out of high school, and was trading sex for drugs, the sister said. The family was concerned the girl would end up dead.
The sister also told 10News the teen wasn’t accepted into rehab in Orange County because she had escaped in the past. The family visited the clinic in Tijuana earlier this month to determine it was safe, the sister said.
CHP public information officer Kevin Smale said the father and sister were arrested Monday but the district attorney’s office chose not to book them on kidnapping charges. The case report is being written and will be reviewed for other possible charges, Smale said.
RELATED: San Diego District Attorney to decide whether father who bound and gagged daughter will be charged
