SAN ANTONIO – A space with no windows or air conditioning and only big enough for a few household items is where San Antonio police said an East Side man was holding a teenage girl.
Officers found the 15-year-old Sunday inside a locked storage closet at an apartment complex on Delmar Street, located not far from South New Braunfels Avenue.
An arrest warrant affidavit states police went to the complex after getting a call from the girl’s mother.
The woman told them the teen’s friends informed her that her missing daughter was at the home of Anthony Jassiel Cortez, 30.
According to the affidavit, when officers knocked on Cortez’s door, he told them the girl had been at his home for a few days, but he dropped her off at a mall.
Police then continued searching the area and eventually heard the teen knocking from inside an outdoor storage closet, which police said was steps away from Cortez’s door.
The closet, which has a deadbolt lock, could only be locked or opened from the outside, the affidavit states.
One neighbor, who wanted to remain anonymous, told KSAT 12 News she noticed the commotion as police and firefighters worked to free the girl.
She said they used a hammer and crowbar to pry open the door.
“They tried and tried, and they couldn’t get in,” the neighbor said. “As soon as they opened it, a young girl came out of here.”
The neighbor said the teen appeared to be confused as she stepped out into the open.
“She was sweating. Her hair was kind of wet,” the neighbor said. “We didn’t know how long she was in there.”
The affidavit was not clear about when she was placed in the closet.
A spokesman for SAPD declined to share any additional details, including how the girl came to the apartment complex in the first place.
Police said that because the case involved a minor, they could not discuss it further.
In the affidavit, though, it states the teen told police that Cortez had sexually assaulted her inside his apartment “2 or 3 times” before locking her in the storage closet.
She was taken to a hospital for treatment, the document states.
“To put somebody in this metal door, this little storage is crazy, with the heat and all that,” said the neighbor. “I mean, you never know who your neighbors are, and what’s going on with them.”
Cortez has lived at the apartment for only a few months, according to several neighbors.
He was booked into jail on Wednesday on charges of kidnapping, sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child.
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