Girlfriend heard deadly attack on teen

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Police arrested an Austin man Wednesday in the rape and stabbing death of Bianca Maldonado, 17, who was found dead in her East Austin apartment over the weekend.

The suspect's girlfriend heard the attack on her cell phone when she called him after finding him gone from his apartment, police said. She alerted police, which led to the arrest of her boyfriend.

Areli Carbajal Escobar, 30, is being charged with capital murder in the death of the LBJ High School student, who was found on Sunday in a unit at the Huntington Meadows complex at 7000 Decker Lane, where she lived with her mother, sister and son.

Attacked by a stranger in the middle of the night, Maldonado "put up a fight for her life" and the life of her son, police said Wednesday.

Maldonado's son, 1, was in the apartment at the time of the attack, police said. The child was treated and released from the hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.

"She put up a fight for her life," Lt. Mark Spangler, with the Austin Police Department. "And it was not only a fight for her life, but a fight to protect her one-year-old son who was critically injured during that assault."

Police said Escobar asked his girlfriend if she would spend the night with him last Saturday at his apartment at Huntington Meadows. The girlfriend got there around 2:30 a.m., showered, and went to bed, according to the arrest affidavit.

According to police documents:

The girlfriend woke up when she heard the door shut around 4 a.m. and realized that Escobar had left the apartment. She got up to leave and found his Lincoln Navigator in the parkinglot and figured out that he'd left the apartment on foot.

She started calling his cell phone. On the fourth call, Escobar's phone picked up - and the girlfriend heard a woman screaming. For the next 10 minutes, she heard what she later described as the sound of a woman being raped.

An hour later, the girlfriend sent a text to Escobar's sister, saying that she heard him having sex with another woman. The sister responded that her brother had come home to "change clothes because he had fought and had a bloody shirt." She also told the girlfriend that "he could not come home because someone might be looking for him."

The girlfriend then sent a text to her own son saying she thought Escobar had raped someone.

Soon after, police said, Maldonado's mother arrived home from her job delivering newspapers around 6:52 a.m. and called 911 after discovering her daughter's body.

Meanwhile, around noon, the girlfriend - still apparently unaware of what had happened - asked her boyfriend's sister through a text message if she'd found out what happened, documents say.

The sister responded that "she spoke with (her boyfriend) and Areli told him that he 'F-ed up.'"

Her text said to the girlfriend said "the blood was sum (sic) girls and not his. My mom already washed his clothes 2x and she still cant (sic) get all the blood off. She said his clothes had tons of blood on it. Gosh idk (I don't know) what he did."

Police said they also found Maldonado's purse in a sink in her apartment, with the contents of her wallet missing. 

Officers found Escobar at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and said he had a large cut on the back of his hand, bruises, and scratches on his face and elbow. The injuries "appeared fresh, and were consistent with the injuries occurring a couple of days earlier."

 Police said the victim had injuries that indicated she was raped as well as stabbed, and  they have recovered an "instrument" they believe may have been used in the stabbing.

One woman who said she once dated the suspect defended him.

"I don't believe it," said Catherine Garza, the suspect's ex-girlfriend. "Because we were together for 4 or 5 months, and (he) was not aggressive. He was always a good person. And I think it's a lie. I don't believe it. "
 

 KXAN reporter Shannon Powell contributed to this report.