Family friend accused of impregnating 12-year-old gets life sentence, TX cops say

A Texas man accused of impregnating a 12-year-old girl and sexually abusing her for years has been sentenced to life in prison, officials say.

Joshua Weibye, 33, of Groesbeck met the victim while he was in a relationship with her mother, and began abusing her when she was 5 years old, the Limestone County District Attorney’s Office said in an April 7 news release.

In 2020, after enduring several years of abuse, the girl told her mother what Weibye had been doing to her, but he denied it and “nothing changed,” officials said. The girl later told investigators that her mother never believed her, and that Weibye continued to be treated as a trusted family friend.

A suspicious story

Weibye got the girl pregnant in 2021, when she was 12, and took her to a clinic in Austin to get an abortion, according to officials. The fetus was about 11 weeks old, staff determined, but the clinic refused to go through with the procedure because no parent or guardian was present.

Weibye had coached the girl to tell staff that she had sex with a 12-year-old boy and that this boy was the father, authorities said. However, clinic staff still contacted police due to the girl being underage, and Austin police informed police in Groesbeck, who immediately had doubts over the girl’s story about an “unknown 12-year-old boy,” officials said.

“The victim could not give consistent information, and she did not have answers to many basic questions. (Officers) also learned that the victim’s mother did not know that she was pregnant or that (Weibye) had taken the victim to get an abortion, which also caused them to be suspicious,” the release said.

Child Protective Services spoke to the girl’s mother, explaining that police could perform DNA testing on the fetus, or on the baby once it was born, to determine the father’s identity, officials said. She agreed to meet with CPS again and help with the investigation, but when the time came for a scheduled medical exam for her daughter, the family was nowhere to be found.

“She quit her job and disappeared, with her children,” according to officials. Police and CPS “did an exhaustive search” but couldn’t find them.

The vanished girl

But more than a year later, in March 2023, a neighbor saw someone familiar in the backyard of Weibye’s house — the vanished girl.

The neighbor contacted police, who “responded immediately and found the victim in the home and took custody of her because she did not have a legal guardian with her,” officials said.

Investigators learned the girl had spent over a year in Mexico after her mother suddenly uprooted the family from Texas, the release said.

“Through the investigation, officers learned that the mother had given the victim pills which caused her to lose the baby,” officials said.

She lived with relatives and her mother in Mexico for about 18 months, according to officials. But then Weibye came for her and brought her back to Texas with him.

“When she got back to Groesbeck, he did not sexually abuse her at first, but then it started again and continued,” only ending thanks to a vigilant neighbor who happened to see her, bringing police to Weibye’s house, officials said .

Weibye was found guilty on Feb. 28 and sentenced April 4, officials said.

He’s been sentenced to life in prison on a count of continuous sexual abuse of a young child, 80 years on counts of indecency with a child, and another 20 years on a charge of sexual assault of a child that the defendant was prohibited from marrying.

In court, Weibye said he did not abuse the girl and “had done nothing but help the mother with her children,” according to officials.

The mother told the court she didn’t give her daughter abortion pills, as “she never knew for sure the victim was pregnant.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Family friend accused of impregnating 12-year-old gets life sentence, TX cops say."