A woman in Southern California who was reportedly abducted a decade ago has been found alive, and her alleged kidnapper has been arrested, Santa Ana police say.
The unidentified victim was reported missing by her mother in 2004, when she was 15. Police say Isidro Garcia, 41, was taken into custody on Tuesday and booked on suspicion of kidnapping and rape.
According to The Associated Press, police say the woman has reported that at the time of the kidnapping, Garcia was dating her mother, who he assaulted before drugging the teen and kidnapping her. He drove the girl to a house in Compton and held her against her will, authorities say. (Initially, the AP reported that the girl, not her mother, was dating Garcia).
According to the AP:
"Over the coming months, police say he provided the girl with fake identification and used physical and emotional abuse to prevent her from fleeing.
"The woman, now 25, came forward to police after finding her sister on Facebook."
"'Over the course of the following months and years, Garcia repeatedly told the victim her family had given up looking for her, and if she tried to go back to them, the family would be deported,' [a police] news release stated.
"Garcia allegedly frequently assaulted the victim sexually and physically, and the couple repeatedly moved to avoid police.
"They worked at a nighttime cleaning service so that Garcia 'could keep a close eye on the victim,' according to police.
" 'Even with the opportunity to escape, after years of physical and mental abuse, the victim saw no way out of her situation and lived a life with Garcia under sustained physical and mental abuse,' the news release stated.
"Garcia forced her to marry him in 2007, police said, and she bore him a child in 2012."
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