Hostage house 'full of garbage'

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The possibility of more suspects -- some even posing as victims -- is fueling a human trafficking investigation for Austin police. Earlier this week they busted a ring at an east Austin home on Johnny Morris Road, where at least eight confirmed victims from Mexico and Latin America were imprisoned.

So far, police have arrested one man, Fernando Salazar, for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. However, they say more charges, including kidnapping and human trafficking could be ahead.

"Just sad that people could be treated this way,” said Melanie Wassell, as she entered the home's kitchen and was hit with the stench of soured food. "Well the house, it's full of garbage. Food just everywhere."

Wassell works for the man who owns the house and a string of other rental properties. Now she and her crew are must make sure what smugglers left behind gets cleaned up.

• View a photo slideshow of the inside of the house.

Police said the captives were here for days, some of them maybe even weeks, including a 15-year-old. When he was unable to pay, they threatened to keep him at the house to cook and clean for them.

"Dirty clothes,” Wassell pointed out, walking into one of the tiny bedrooms. “The hygiene, it's just, it's awful what you see in here, that anybody was made to live in these kind of conditions."

Held at gun-point, the other immigrants faced returning to the Mexican border, where their captors would kill them if there families could not come up with the money.

One man left what appears to be a loved one's number on the wall, while cell phones remained scattered around the darkened rooms where they slept on only mattresses.

Wassell said she hates to think what would have happened if one of those family members hadn't tipped off police.

"It's a horrible thing that people could do that to other people,” she said.

The owner of the home said the man police arrested is not the person who rented the home two months ago. The renter passed a criminal background check, and now the owner is trying to figure out how this happened.