onedef92
05-22-2014, 9:12am
California Woman, Abducted at 15, Is Found After 10 Years
Posted May 21, 2014
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Isidro Garcia was arrested Monday on charges of kidnap for rape, lewd act with a minor and false imprisonment.
BELL GARDENS, Calif. — First, he drugged and kidnapped his girlfriend’s 15-year-old daughter, the police in Santa Ana, Calif., said. Later, he said that if she tried to get away, her family would be deported. Eventually, he forced her to marry him, and she had a baby.
On Wednesday, 10 years after the man is said to have abducted the young woman, the police announced that he had been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping for rape and false imprisonment, among other charges. The man, identified by the police as Isidro Garcia, 41, was to be arraigned on Thursday.
Several neighbors interviewed Wednesday evening in this southeast suburb of Los Angeles said the couple, whom they knew as Tomas and Laura, had been here for years and appeared to live a mundane but happy life, hosting annual birthday parties for their 3-year-old daughter, Lupita.
“I don’t believe it,” said Erika Sanchez, 24, who lives next door and occasionally babysat the young girl. “It doesn’t seem right.”
The police said the victim, now 25, had contacted them after reaching out to her sister on Facebook on the sister’s birthday. They said she had stayed with Mr. Garcia because she did not see a way out of a situation that involved “years of sustained physical and mental abuse.”
Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for the Santa Ana police, told the radio station KNX-AM in Los Angeles that the woman had tried to escape at least once. “She was a 15-year-old girl in a new country,” he said. “She’s been told by the suspect her family doesn’t want her, and this is all she’s got.”
The police said Mr. Garcia used a pseudonym, Tomas Rodriguez Medrano.
The family was originally from Mexico, the police said. They did not identify the woman or her mother.
The police said that in 2004, Mr. Garcia was dating the woman’s mother and living with the family in the Villa del Sol garden-apartment complex in Santa Ana, a largely middle-class, mostly Latino city in the inland part of Orange County, about an hour south of Los Angeles.
The woman told the police that Mr. Garcia had begun sexually assaulting her in June of that year. The mother had suspected as much but had no evidence to prove it, the police said. Mr. Garcia abducted her in August after assaulting her mother, the police said, and initially took her to a house in Compton, Calif. There, they said, he locked her in a garage overnight and gave her false identity papers.
Mr. Garcia and the woman moved several times “to avoid police detection,” the police said. They worked for the same cleaning service, holding down jobs on a night cleaning crew that he had arranged “so he could keep a close eye on the victim.” The police said he compelled her to marry him in 2007, and in 2012 she had a child, though several neighbors said their daughter was 3.
The woman told the police that Mr. Garcia had said repeatedly that her family had given up looking for her and that her mother and sisters would be deported if she tried to return home.
She told the police that she had tried to escape but that Mr. Garcia had beaten her.
Several neighbors said the couple had moved into a small apartment building more than three years ago and hosted a baby shower, and that several of Mr. Garcia’s family members had traveled from Fresno, Calif., to attend.
Ms. Sanchez said the couple each drove their own cars. He worked in a food warehouse and she at a laundry service, and both returning in the afternoons, she said.
“She had a lot of free time,” Ms. Sanchez said, adding that Mr. Garcia often bought his wife flowers and that there was no sign she was being held against her will. “He treated her as a queen,” she said.
The police said the woman had been reunited with her family in Santa Ana.
Posted May 21, 2014
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m111/onedef92/22california1-superJumbo_zps14cf84a6.jpg
Isidro Garcia was arrested Monday on charges of kidnap for rape, lewd act with a minor and false imprisonment.
BELL GARDENS, Calif. — First, he drugged and kidnapped his girlfriend’s 15-year-old daughter, the police in Santa Ana, Calif., said. Later, he said that if she tried to get away, her family would be deported. Eventually, he forced her to marry him, and she had a baby.
On Wednesday, 10 years after the man is said to have abducted the young woman, the police announced that he had been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping for rape and false imprisonment, among other charges. The man, identified by the police as Isidro Garcia, 41, was to be arraigned on Thursday.
Several neighbors interviewed Wednesday evening in this southeast suburb of Los Angeles said the couple, whom they knew as Tomas and Laura, had been here for years and appeared to live a mundane but happy life, hosting annual birthday parties for their 3-year-old daughter, Lupita.
“I don’t believe it,” said Erika Sanchez, 24, who lives next door and occasionally babysat the young girl. “It doesn’t seem right.”
The police said the victim, now 25, had contacted them after reaching out to her sister on Facebook on the sister’s birthday. They said she had stayed with Mr. Garcia because she did not see a way out of a situation that involved “years of sustained physical and mental abuse.”
Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for the Santa Ana police, told the radio station KNX-AM in Los Angeles that the woman had tried to escape at least once. “She was a 15-year-old girl in a new country,” he said. “She’s been told by the suspect her family doesn’t want her, and this is all she’s got.”
The police said Mr. Garcia used a pseudonym, Tomas Rodriguez Medrano.
The family was originally from Mexico, the police said. They did not identify the woman or her mother.
The police said that in 2004, Mr. Garcia was dating the woman’s mother and living with the family in the Villa del Sol garden-apartment complex in Santa Ana, a largely middle-class, mostly Latino city in the inland part of Orange County, about an hour south of Los Angeles.
The woman told the police that Mr. Garcia had begun sexually assaulting her in June of that year. The mother had suspected as much but had no evidence to prove it, the police said. Mr. Garcia abducted her in August after assaulting her mother, the police said, and initially took her to a house in Compton, Calif. There, they said, he locked her in a garage overnight and gave her false identity papers.
Mr. Garcia and the woman moved several times “to avoid police detection,” the police said. They worked for the same cleaning service, holding down jobs on a night cleaning crew that he had arranged “so he could keep a close eye on the victim.” The police said he compelled her to marry him in 2007, and in 2012 she had a child, though several neighbors said their daughter was 3.
The woman told the police that Mr. Garcia had said repeatedly that her family had given up looking for her and that her mother and sisters would be deported if she tried to return home.
She told the police that she had tried to escape but that Mr. Garcia had beaten her.
Several neighbors said the couple had moved into a small apartment building more than three years ago and hosted a baby shower, and that several of Mr. Garcia’s family members had traveled from Fresno, Calif., to attend.
Ms. Sanchez said the couple each drove their own cars. He worked in a food warehouse and she at a laundry service, and both returning in the afternoons, she said.
“She had a lot of free time,” Ms. Sanchez said, adding that Mr. Garcia often bought his wife flowers and that there was no sign she was being held against her will. “He treated her as a queen,” she said.
The police said the woman had been reunited with her family in Santa Ana.