DailyExpertNews
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The search for a family of four kidnapped in California continues Wednesday after family members sought the public’s help.
Authorities said they had a stakeholder in custody and held a press conference showing surveillance videos of the family being forced into a truck by an armed man.
The kidnapping of 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her parents Jasleen Kaur and Jasdeep Singh and the child’s uncle, Amandeep Singh, took place Monday in Merced, California.
“Every shop, gas station, anyone who has cameras, check the cameras,” Sukhdeep Singh, a brother of one of the victims, told reporters on Wednesday. “We need the help of the public now. Please help us… so my family gets home safely.”
Another relative, identified only as Balvinder, described the family as “peaceful” and said they run a small business and have lived in the area for a long time.
“We are devastated. We are shocked. We’re dying any minute without finding clues,” Balvinder said.
Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said the man in custody was convicted in a 2005 case of armed robbery and false imprisonment. The man was released on parole in 2015. Warnke said the man in the previous case acted alone and knew the victims.
Warnke said he believes at least one other person was involved in the kidnapping, but “we have no evidence to support that.”
In the video shown at the press conference, Jasdeep and Amandeep Singh are seen arriving at the family truck company nine minutes apart. Monday, shortly before 9 a.m., Jasdeep meets a man outside the company — who carried a garbage bag and then pulled out what looked like a firearm.
Jasdeep and Amandeep, hands tied behind their backs, are later escorted by the gunman to the back of a truck, which departs and returns six minutes later.
The gunman then re-enters the company and is seen carrying Jasleen, who is carrying baby Aroohi, to the pickup.
A farmer found two of the victims’ cell phones on a road Monday, authorities said. At one point, the farmer picked up the phone and spoke to a relative of the victims.
The person of interest, who tried to take his life, was sedated for being violent in the hospital.
“We need to get this person in a position where we can ask questions and hopefully get some answers,” the sheriff said.
“Right now the big question and the first question to be asked is, ‘Where is the family?'” he added.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, no charges have been filed. DailyExpertNews does not name the man in custody.
According to the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began at 11:39 a.m. Monday, when the California Highway Patrol responded to a 2020 Dodge Ram that was on fire and asked Merced police to help track down the vehicle’s owner.
About an hour later, at 12:35 p.m., Merced police officers arrived at the truck owner’s address and met a relative there. Officers tried to reach the couple and the child’s uncle, but they were unable to reach them.
Later Monday, at 1:04 p.m., agents from the Merced County Sheriff’s Office responded to a business on South Highway 59. “During the primary investigation, detectives determined that the individuals had been kidnapped,” the sheriff’s office said Tuesday.
The kidnapping involved a gun and means of coercion, said Deputy Sheriff’s Office Deputy Alexandra Britton.
In an initial statement on the case Monday, the sheriff’s office said it believed the family had been taken “against their will” from a business on the 800-block of South Highway 59 in Merced, which runs between Modesto and Fresno in central California. is.
“We have no motivation behind it. We just know they are gone,” Warnke said in a video message on Facebook.
Warnke also said investigators have gathered evidence that “the individuals involved in this destroyed evidence in an effort to cover their tracks.”
On Tuesday, authorities took a 48-year-old man into custody as an interested party in the case.
Britton said the man’s family had contacted police and told them the man had admitted to being involved in the kidnapping. Police contacted the man after a phone call from the family.
As they investigate, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office continues to ask the public to contact its office at 209-385-7547 to share any information they have about the case. The FBI and the California Department of Justice are also investigating.
Investigators learned Tuesday morning that an ATM belonging to one of the victims was used at a bank in Atwater, Calif., the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Atwater is about nine miles northwest of Merced. Britton said it is unclear whether the 48-year-old in custody is the person who used that card.
After that transaction, investigators were able to identify the 48-year-old man as a person of interest in the case and later took him into custody, officials said.
The man tried to take his own life before the police were called, and the sheriff’s office said he was in critical condition on Tuesday.
Authorities were in the process of confirming that the man in custody is the same suspect as Monday’s photos, Alexandra Britton, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told DailyExpertNews.
“Detectives obtained the surveillance photo of a person conducting a bank transaction where the person resembles the surveillance photo from the original kidnapping scene,” the sheriff’s office said.
On Monday, officials described the suspect as a man with a shaved head and last seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He was considered armed and dangerous, officials said.
