Sheriff Vern Warneke announced on Wednesday that the bodies of a child and 3 others had been found mercedes County Orchard and told reporters: “Our worst fears have been confirmed.”
Earlier, officials showed surveillance video of a child abductor, Aarohi Dheri, at a press conference; baby mama, Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, from his business in Merced.
4 dangerous and fatal news came in California, 8.
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The family was originally from Harsi Pind in Hoshiarpur, Punjab.
Merced is a city of 86,000 people, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco in the agricultural heartland of the San Joaquin Valley, California.
‘Guilty robber kidnapped family’
Authorities said the family was taken in by a convicted robber, Jesus Salgado, who tried to kill himself a day after the kidnapping.
A vehicle owned by one of the family members caught fire late Monday, leading law enforcement to determine that the four had been abducted.
The kidnapper made no ransom demands but the sheriff said he believed it was a financially motivated crime.
Warneke told KFSN-TV on Tuesday that 48-year-old Salgado’s relatives contacted authorities to say he had admitted he was involved in the kidnapping.
He said Salgado tried to take his own life before police arrived at a home in Atwater and has been hospitalized ever since.
Warneke said detectives have not been able to speak to Salgado, who has been sedated in hospital, but he is hoping to do so with the help of doctors on Wednesday.
Salgado had previously been convicted of first-degree robbery with the use of a firearm in Merced County, as well as attempted false imprisonment and attempted to detain or deter a victim or witness. He was sentenced to 11 years in state prison in that case, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
He was released from prison in 2015 and was released from parole three years later. The corrections agency said he is also charged with possessing a controlled substance.
Investigators have found no link between Salgado and the family to show that they knew each other before the kidnapping.