Sheriff’s deputies in central California confirmed their “worst fears” when a mother, father, eight-month-old baby and her uncle were found dead two days after being kidnapped.
Speaking during a press briefing on Wednesday night, Merced County Sheriff Vernon H Warnke said all four bodies had been found in a rural field near Indiana Road and Hutchins Road in Merced County.
“There’s no words right now to describe the anger I feel and the senselessness of this incident,” said the sheriff. “I said it earlier, there’s a special place in hell for this guy, and I mean it”.
One person has been taken into custody, 48-year-old Jesus Manuel Salgado. He was described as a “person of interest” and deputies are yet to speak to him.
Here’s everything we know so far:
Who is Jesus Manuel Salgado?
The 48-year-old was taken into custody on Tuesday as a “person of interest” in the case, the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Facebook, while the family remained missing.
Mr Salgado’s arrest came after his family informed sheriff’s deputies that he admitted to being involved in the kidnapping of the family of four, ABC 7 News reported on Tuesday.
The sheriff’s office said Mr Salgado was receiving medical care and critical attention after “attempting to take his own life” prior to being arrested. He was transported to the hospital in an ambulance.
He remains in hospital in critical condition with deputies unable to speak with him as of Thursday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The family have since been found dead.
Sheriff Warnke has said there is no known connection between the family of four and Mr Salgado.
What is the motivation?
During an earlier press conference on Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said while no official motive has been determined for the kidnapping, Mr Salgado could have been motivated by financial gain.
“So far my speculation is that its financial,” the sheriff said. “Until we prove otherwise, and again we don’t believe there’s a hate crime involved.”
He continued: “We just think that this guy, because of his history, he’s a robber, a thief, he needs to be in prison, ok? That’s where he needs to be, and hopefully we can get him to communicate with us”.
What crimes was Salgado previously convicted of?
The Merced County sheriff said Mr Salgado had previously been convicted of crimes including theft and robbery, having been sentenced in 2005.
“He was actually convicted of it (robbery) in 2005 and once he was sentenced he was paroled in 2015,” Mr Warnke said during Wednesday’s press briefing, adding: “Since the parole we have not had any major contact with this person at all”.
Is anybody else invovled?
“Seeing everything that’s gone on, I fully believe that there is at least one other person involved but we don’t have any evidence to support that,” the Merced County sheriff said on Wednesday. “It’s just the circumstances surrounding this”.
Despite the remarks, no other persons have been identified.
On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies said they received an alert from a bank in the City of Atwater, about 10 miles northeast of Merced, where a bank card belonging to one of the kidnapping victims had been used at an ATM.
While an image of a man deputies believed to be Mr Salgado was shared on its Facebook page, the sheriff’s office said the man pictured on CCTV using the bank card was not Mr Salgado.
How did the kidnapping occur?
The family of four– including an eight-month-old child – were taken against their will from a business in the south of Merced County on Monday, sheriff’s said.
Eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27, her father Jasdeep Singh, 36, and her uncle, Amandeep Singh, 39, were those kidnapped. They were found deceased on Wednesday night in a rural field.
Deputies said they have obtained CCTV footage showing the moment the family were kidnapped.
Speaking in a news briefing on Monday, Sheriff Warnke said investigators believed the suspect destroyed any evidence of the kidnapping.
“ We’ve got evidence to indicate that the individuals involved in this destroyed evidence in an attempt to cover-up the tracks”.
Merced, the centre of Merced County, is about 77 miles east of San Jose and 55 miles north of Fresno.
