A Sioux City couple is accused paying to have a Guatemalan girl trafficked into the country and locking her in their Iowa home, where the girl says she was repeatedly raped before she escaped, court documents show.

Amy Francisco and Cristobal Francisco-Nicolas face federal charges of “bringing in and harboring certain aliens.” The charges were filed in the Northern District of Iowa, though initial court appearance documents for both were filed July 11 in the Southern District of California.

Francisco-Nicolas, 38, is also accused of raping the girl while his wife watched. Authorities have not charged him with any sexual offenses in this case, a review of Iowa court documents show.

The girl, whose age is not listed in court documents, is identified only by three initials. She is not being named by the Register because she is a minor and a victim.

The girl arrived in Sioux City on May 31 after a journey that began when a Guatemalan national named Fernando Bartolo Francisco announced himself as her father and took her from her aunt’s care in Guatemala, according to court documents. The girl said her mother died when she was 3 or 4 years old.

Bartolo Francisco traveled with the girl to the U.S.-Mexico border, where the two crossed the Rio Grande River on May 29 west of a border station in El Paso, Texas, court documents show. The two were arrested by border patrol agents, but released from the El Paso detention center because of a lack of space.

Bartolo Francisco and the girl then flew to Omaha, Nebraska, where Francisco and Francisco-Nicolas met them and took them out for a meal before traveling to their home in the 3000 block of Hamilton Boulevard in Sioux City.

At that residence, the girl says she was locked in a room “with a metal bed and a bucket for bodily waste,” according to the complaint. She said Francisco-Nicolas raped her five times before one day leaving for work without locking her door. She said she escaped the home while Amy Francisco slept.

Three search warrants naming Francisco-Nicolas or Francisco have been executed since late June, according to Iowa court records. The affidavits supporting the warrants have been sealed.

Court documents show an investigation led to the discovery of four other Guatemalan nationals living in the Sioux City residence: Maurilio Juarez-Marcos and his minor son; and Juan Francisco-Pedro and his minor son.

Amy Francisco’s father, Ronald Craig, also lived at the residence.

Craig, a U.S. citizen, told police his daughter and son-in-law have helped about 10 Guatemalans travel to the United States. He said the two “arrange for the individuals to travel from Guatemala to the U.S. border and that they must bring a child with them,” according to court documents.

Craig said his daughter paid $700 to bring the girl and her father across the U.S. border and made all of the travel arrangements to Sioux City.

During interviews with authorities on June 19 in Sioux City, Francisco-Nicolas “stated he knows he messed up and the mistake he made was receiving these people,” according to court documents.

Stephen Gruber-Miller and Lucas Grundmeier contributed to this article.

Paige O. Windsor is the news director for the Register. She can be reached at pwindsor@registermedia.com, at 515-214-4420, or on Twitter at @DMRnewsdirector.