Texan arrested in cyber-stalking probe; female real estate agents targeted across the U.S.

McLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KWTX/KCBD) - A Lubbock, TX man has been arrested and charged with cyber-stalking female real estate agents in the Waco area. He is also accused of threatening to sexually assault their children, according to officials with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives are working with other law enforcement agencies to see how widespread this cyber-stalking case may be. The McLennan County Sheriff said this case could span across 22 states. The latest list shows Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, San Antonio and Waco in Texas. Also on the list is: Tucson, AZ; Anaheim, Berkley, Irvine, San Jose and Santa Clara, CA; Broward County and Daytona Beach, FL; New Orleans, LA; Reno, NV; Albany and Manhattan, NY; Belfort, SC; Seattle, WA; and Washington, D.C.

Officials say the locations were gathered after the arrest warrant was served.

The investigation began in Texas after about a half-dozen female real estate agents in the Waco area received sexually explicit photographs sent from cellphone numbers they didn’t recognize. They also received photos of their own children, evidently copied from social media pages. The photos of their children were accompanied by descriptions of what the stalker, or stalkers, would like to do to the children sexually, according to detectives.

McLennan County Sheriff’s Office Detective Joseph Scaramucci and a team of investigators traveled to Lubbock this weekend. They served an arrest warrant Monday morning in the 800 block of 3rd Place, which is near 3rd and Buddy Holly Ave.

When the arrest warrant was served, 56-year-old Andy Castillo was taken into custody. He has been booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center.

He’s facing a charge of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated sexual assault of a child, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said Monday morning.

“We had a situation where we had an individual who was harassing an stalking local female realtors and sending extremely dirty, nasty texts thru the mail, trying to procure their children for sex,” said McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara.

Sheriff McNamara says they have been investigating the case since before Christmas. They were able to narrow down the suspects to two individuals - one being in Lubbock. Castillo, the suspect, will be charged in Waco on multiple counts and will be extradited to McLennan County to stand trial.

He said, “This 'creep” has been doing this in 10 different states, in 20 different cities. The same thing.”

Detectives will be reaching out to the other cities to see if any realtors have filed any complaints.

“It is my understanding, even this morning, five to 10 min prior to the search warrant being run on his place, he was texting women with very nasty texts, very provocative texts.”

There is a good possibility some of these offenses will be charged federally, he said.

“I think his motive is he is just a dirty, nasty, sick pervert. And, that’s what this guy is. He is a sicko and he preys on women.”

He goes to realtor’s sites, gets their information and begins to harass and stalk them, he said.

“These women, realtors, are very good people. They’re good business people. And then to have some lowlife scumbag like this start sending them these text messages and even asking them if he can perform sex acts on their little bitty kids, it would scare anybody. It’s terrorized our community and I am sure many other communities.”

“We have another individual that has been doing the same thing and we have identified him. We do have a warrant for his arrest. And our guys are looking for him as we speak. We will catch him, we will arrest him also,” he said. In an earlier interview from Det. Scaramucci, he said the second suspect is in another Texas city, but did not say which city.

"I just think they are twisted sexual individuals and they’re getting some sort of pleasure out of it,” Detective Scaramucci said earlier.

The stalker(s) evidently used apps to mask the numbers from which the images and messages were sent, but finally made a mistake, he said.

“You know, eventually your day comes. So if you are doing these types of crimes and you are victimizing, you’re only going to be lucky for so long and one of these days we’re going to come knocking,” he said.

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