by Doug Miller / KHOU 11 News
khou.com
Posted on June 24, 2013 at 7:07 PM
Updated today at 12:31 PM

HOUSTON – Authorities found a home with more than two dozen suspected undocumented immigrants in northwest Houston on Monday.

Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were tipped off to the home after one of the immigrants, apparently held against his will, escaped to a nearby church for help.

When investigators knocked on the front door of the home, the woman who answered the door appeared to be anxious. Deputies said two or three people scrambled out a back window.

However, deputies were able to take 19 men and five women from Matamoros, Mexico, who were living at the home, into custody.

Indeed, it seems no one suspected what was going on inside the house until the sheriff’s office heard from the pastor of a nearby church.

“He had someone that had possibly escaped from this residence that was being held here, and he went to his church, not far from here and told him, ‘I just escaped from a house. I need help getting my friends,’” Sgt. Nat Gutierrez, with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said.

The junk in the yard led neighbors to believe that the home was some sort of automotive business.

“Car dealership, like a mechanic shop, but that’s it,” Kristina Turner, a neighbor, said.

Authorities said that it appeared that some of the people living at the house may have been beaten. They seemed frightened and confused as federal officials took them away.

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