LOS ANGELES — A woman who says she was kidnapped at 15 and held hostage by a man for 10 years now says she feels “happy and blessed” to be back with her family.
Her alleged abductor, Isidro Garcia, 41, was arrested this week and faces arraignment Thursday on charges of suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment.
Police in the Orange County city of Santa Ana said the victim, whose name was not released, told officers her mother was dating Garcia in 2004 when he drugged the teen and drove her to a house in Compton, in Los Angeles County, where he held her in a locked garage.
Garcia moved them frequently, forced her to marry him in 2007 — and they had a child together in 2012, police said. The victim, now 25, came forward after contacting her sister via Facebook. The girl’s mother reported her missing in August 2004.
“I was 15. I couldn’t do anything, I don’t have a life,” the woman told KABC, her back to the camera. “He worked hard for me and my daughter and he bought everything I want, but I need love of my family — not things.”
Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said investigators believe the victim arrived with her mother and sister from Mexico illegally in February 2004 and spoke no English.
“You are talking about a 15-year-old girl that is in a new country, that gets here in February, and this happens to her six months later,” said Bertagna said. “She’s told her family doesn’t care, her family isn’t looking for her.”
Bertagna said the victim told officers there was “continued and repeated assaults. On two occasions she tried to escape, he caught her, he beat her for her efforts.”
In the suburb of Bell Gardens, neighbor Javier Campos said he was stunned at the news. “It’s hard to believe because he … seemed like such a nice guy from what we see,” Campos said.
Neighbor Meribel Garcia, who is not related to the suspect, was not so surprised. “He was always watching, when she was outside he was looking through the window, looking down at her,” Garcia said. “And she would look at him, and she would go right back in as if she knew she had to do what he said.”
Police described Isidro Garcia as the mother’s “cohabitant boyfriend” at the time of the kidnapping and said he allegedly began sexually assaulting the victim in the family home in June 2004.
Bertagna said Garcia fought with the girl’s mother in August 2004 and left, taking the girl with him. She told investigators he gave her pills that knocked her out, and that she awoke in a garage in Compton.
The mother “filed a police report and for 10 years (police) did due diligence. But they were changing their names and dates of birth and physical locations so that made it exceedingly difficult,” Bertagna said. The victim tried to escape twice but was severely beaten, he said.
Garcia obtained documents from Mexico giving the victim a new name and date of birth, and he used them to marry her at a courthouse in 2007, he said.
“I was very afraid about everything because I was alone,” the woman told KABC. “I think i was alone, but I was never alone. My family was with me.”
Contributing: Associated Press/ www.usatoday.com
