The 35-year-old man accused of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl and assaulting her sister in a Canby apartment early Wednesday was arraigned by video in Clackamas County courthouse Thursday afternoon on 10 felony allegations.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owen said Vince Edgar Chavez unlawfully entered the girls’ apartment, struck the 12-year-old girl in the head with a hammer numerous times, knocking her out.
Chavez then kidnapped the 10-year-old sister and tied her up in a closet of an Oregon City home, the prosecutor and police said.
The girls’ mother and Chavez had known one another at one time, Owen said.
There was no forced entry into the Canby home. The girls’ mother was home at the time of the abduction and called 911, he said.
The identification of Chavez’s automobile, a white van, was “paramount in this investigation,” Owen said, adding that officers also were able to track his phone to determine his location.
Chavez attempted to escape out a back window when SWAT officers surrounded the Oregon City home in the 500 block of Pleasant Avenue about 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, according to the U.S. Marshals Service and Canby police.
Officers located the 10-year-old girl duct-taped in a duffel bag in a closest of the bedroom that Chavez rented in the home about 10 hours after her disappearance, Owen said.
The 10-year-old was taken for medical treatment and an evaluation. The 12-year-old was taken to a local hospital for treatment, according to police and court records.
Chavez, who appeared by video for the brief arraignment in an anti-suicide smock, shook his head as a prosecutor recited the allegations he faces: attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree burglary, first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree sodomy.
In the Canby case, Chavez is accused of striking the older girl with a hammer with the intent to seriously injure or kill her, according to court records. She suffered extensive injuries including a fractured skull, according to the prosecutor.
The ordeal began around 1:50 a.m. when a 911 call came in from the girls’ Canby apartment, reporting a man had struck a 12-year-old girl with a hammer and allegedly abducted the 10-year-old.
The suspect was believed to have fled in a white van, possibly south on U.S. 99, according to police.
Oregon State Police, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service were called in to assist Canby police and the Clackamas County Major Crimes Team in the search for the abducted girl. They scoured the neighborhood for video surveillance images and interviewed the girls’ mother and neighbors.
Owen praised the “swift action” by law enforcement to identify, locate and arrest Chavez “before he could inflict further harm.”
The girls’ grandmother and other supporters attended the brief court hearing Thursday but declined comment.
Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Jones ordered Chavez to be held in custody without bail at the Clackamas County Jail. He’s scheduled to be back in court Nov. 5 for a preventative detention hearing.
As more details were released about the Canby kidnapping case Thursday, Washington County District Attorney’s office confirmed that an alleged child abuse case was reported to Hillsboro police involving Chavez. Washington County prosecutors are actively reviewing the “child abuse matter” from Hillsboro, said Stephen Mayer, spokesperson for the office. No charges have been filed against Chavez in Washington County.
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