Video shared on Wednesday shows the moment a family of four were kidnapped at gunpoint near Merced, a town of 86,000 in the San Joaquin Valley about 200 miles southeast of San Francisco , according to the Merced County Sheriff’s Office.
This is the latest evidence to emerge in the Merced County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into the Monday morning abduction of 8-month-old baby Aroohi Dheri; his parents Jasdeep Singh, 36, and Jasleen Kaur, 27; and his uncle Amandeep Singh, 39. The four were at an office of the family’s trucking business south of Merced off Highway 59 when a man forced them into a black Dodge truck before driving off, the sheriff’s office said. A 48-year-old suspect, Jesus Salgado, who allegedly attempted suicide after the incident, was taken into custody on Tuesday, and the family remains missing, according to the sheriff’s office.
“We have been unable to speak to the suspect in this case, due to his medical condition and the attempt on his own life,” Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said at a conference call. press Wednesday afternoon.
At a press conference, Merced County Deputy Sheriff Corey Gibson reviewed surveillance footage from a camera outside the office, showing a masked man walking past the property before speaking to Jasdeep . Later, it shows him driving Jasdeep and Amandeep, with their hands tied behind their backs, into the back seat of Amandeep’s van. The suspect left and later returned, parked at the office and returned to the back of a trailer that served as a business office and drove Jasleen, who was carrying her baby in her arms, to the outside and in the truck before the suspect left. .
Nothing was stolen from the trucking company, but Warnke said after the kidnappings, an ATM card belonging to one of the family members was used in Atwater, a town about 9 miles north of Merced.
While the kidnapper made no ransom demands, Warnke said he believed the suspect had financial motives.
“We don’t have a motive,” Warnke said. “I can tell you that our suspect has a history of theft and he was convicted of it in 2005 and once he was convicted he was paroled in 2015, and since parole, we haven’t had any major contact with that person. . But we think that’s the motive now.”
Investigators have not found a connection between Salgado and the family to show that they knew each other before the abduction.
“At the moment, we think it was hit and miss,” deputy Alexandra Britton said. “We have no evidence to prove otherwise.”
Warnke said he believes there may be at least one other person involved in the kidnapping beyond Salgado, although he has no evidence to prove it.
This is a developing story and details will be added as they come to light.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.