Sex-crimes arrest rocks neighborhood

The quietest neighbor on a quiet South Valley street stands charged with rape and other crimes after sheriff's raiders reported they found him photographing a missing California girl bound to a chair.

Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies arrested Edward Christy, 57, after a tip from California police sent them to his home in the 2200 block of Kelly Avenue SW on Monday night.

Deputies looking through a window said they could see the 16-year-old runaway tied at the wrists and neck by straps an investigator called "bondage material," according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The deputies also saw flashes of light apparently from a camera.

An investigator quoted Christy as saying he met the girl online about 1 1/2 months ago and believed her to be 18. When she threatened to kill herself if she couldn't be with him, Christy drove to California a few days ago and brought her back to Albuquerque, according to the affidavit.

They both said they had sex a couple times; once on the road and once at Christy's home. The bondage materials were to "facilitate her sexual fantasies," Christy allegedly told investigators.

However when confronted by an e-mail from Christy to the girl discovered by police in Westminster, Calif., he acknowledged knowing the girl was only 16, police said.

Christy is now charged with rape, sexual exploitation of a minor and custodial interference. He is being held under a $200,000 cash-only bond.

Neighbors called Christy the quietest resident on their street.

"We were always friends when I did speak to him,” Vernon Baca, who lives two doors down, said. “And to me, I never had any clue that there was anything different about him.”

“I have two daughters of my own; I have five grandkids of my own, and there's no way everyone's going to ignore this.”

That changed Monday evening when Westminster police called Bernalillo County saying phone records traced the runaway to the Kelly Avenue home.

“It was very disturbing,” said Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said of the scene his deputies encountered.

Edward Christy is charged with sexual exploitation of a child, rape, and custodial interference.

The sheriff says more charges could be coming.

“What we still have to do is answer a whole bunch of questions," White said. “How did this happen?”

Neighbors said the news is just sinking in.

“There was nothing that would draw any attention to that house,” neighbor Andrea Robles said. “On a daily basis there are at least 10 kids riding their bikes next door.

“It's scary.”

A neighbor who didn't want to be identified, but said she became uncomfortable with the way he treated her 12-year-old granddaughter:

“The way he would look at her," the woman said. "It was a different look compared to when he would look at me or anybody else.

“He would always come and tell her she was growing up to be a very beautiful young girl and that she was very, very pretty.”

The neighbor said Christy invited the kids over to watch TV or eat popcorn.

“I would like hesitate and tell them, 'No, don't go,'” the grandmother said.

But some kids did go. A source close to the investigation said deputies found children’s clothing in the house.

The neighbor is not surprised.

“A little boy who lives by them, they say he was in there a lot," she said.

Christy claimed everything he and the girl did was consensual, and investigators are not yet saying yet if they believe girl was being held against her will.

Either way Christy is charged with rape because under New Mexico law there is no consensual sex between a 16-year-old and someone over the age of 20.

KRQE News 13 checked Christy's criminal record, and couldn't find anything worse than a traffic ticket.