A Queens mom revealed jarring details of her 5-year-old daughter’s interactions with a 75-year-old stranger. It is part of a sickening case of abduction and sexual abuse where she acknowledged leaving the child alone with a predator.
Speaking to the New York Daily News, she recalled how the alleged abuser Franz Vila showered attention on the alleged victim after they first met in the spring on the street near their Queens apartment.
“He told me he had kids and grandkids,” said the mom. “But I don’t know if that is true. I thought nothing was going to happen. I thought, ‘He has grandkids.’ ”
Her evaluation of him proved to be a mistake. She later recounted finding the Manhattan man in the shower with her little girl, adding he requested she remove her clothes and told the mother to dress her without underwear.
“He buys her dresses,” the mother said, adding she saw the defendant as a grandfatherly figure. “I told her not to be naked with him. He wants her just in dresses and shorts without underwear.
Vila occasionally purchased groceries and twice visited the victim’s home at the invitation of the mother before he was arrested last Tuesday on charges of false imprisonment, child endangerment, and criminal sex act on a minor after taking the girl to a playground with the mom’s OK and never coming back.
The mother, who is not being identified to keep the identity of her daughter anonymous admitted that she had made a tremendous mistake in letting the man into her life.
“I don’t know why I did that,” she said. “I question myself. I thought maybe he was normal.”
