PITTSBURG COUNTY - The Pittsburg County District Attorney's Office dropped charges this week against two women accused of kidnapping a teen in April.
Kriste Aragon, 36, and Melissa Goelz, 29, were released from Pittsburg County Jail.
District Attorney Chuck Sullivan said his office was not prepared for the preliminary hearing. He said this hearing was set just 20 days after the initial hearing.
"We have additional information that we didn’t have yet -- additional evidence," Sullivan said. "We moved to continue that hearing. The judge was only able to give us a couple of weeks."
That was not enough time, according to Sullivan. The attorney assigned to the case chose to dismiss the charges so they would be able to re-file when they got everything they needed from the other agencies involved.
Sullivan said they believe there were other crimes committed during this series of events and they intend to charge the women.
He said the women were able to get out of jail because the attorney did not immediately refile charges.
"That’s the mistake," Sullivan said. "That’s where we screwed up. Normally, we would dismiss and then immediately refile and they wouldn’t get out of jail. I don’t have a good explanation for that."
The judge ordered Aragon and Goelz to return to court in Pittsburg County for a hearing. At that point, Sullivan said they plan to charge the women again.
When asked if the women could not show up for the July hearing Sullivan said, "It's possible. That's why I regret so much it happened that way."
According to the affidavit, either Aragon or her husband, who was not charged in this case, have been investigated for domestic, child abuse and child sex crimes before.
Court documents show a 14-year old boy met a woman on Xbox Live. He told investigators that Aragon invited him into a group on the gaming system and soon after asked for his phone number.
The teen told investigators their conversations turned sexual. According to court documents, the teen admitted to telling the woman he was actually 17-years old but later told her he was only 14.
The boy told investigators he did not know the woman lived in New Mexico until he was in the car with her and she told him he would "never be back." He said he thought she lived 30 minutes away.
Aragon picked the boy up at his home. The two walked to a car at a nearby store where Goelz was waiting. They did not want their license plate seen.
Court documents show they made several stops along the way to New Mexico on April 17. The boy told investigators he was told to throw the sim card in his phone out of the window and he was told to duck down when they passed through toll booths.
The affidavit discusses sexual activities that took place between the boy and the two women.
When the three of them returned to New Mexico, they were met by police. The women were arrested.
Detective Randy Hass with the Pittsburg County Sheriff's Office said the case was a perfect storm.
"Everyone I called on to help me helped me," Det. Hass said. "This wasn’t just me. There were many turning wheels that night. I believe God played a big part in it."
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