US kidnapping: Suspect in murders of Indian family arrested
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The suspect in the kidnapping and murders of four Indian-origin family members in California, including a baby, was arrested late Thursday. Jesus Manuel Salgado was arrested on four counts of murder and four counts of kidnapping.
The suspect had once worked for the family's trucking business and had a longstanding feud with them that culminated in an act of "pure evil," a sheriff said Thursday.
Other details about Salgado's employment and the nature of the dispute were not immediately available.
Warnke said he believes the family was killed within an hour of the Monday morning kidnapping when they were taken at gunpoint from their business.
The suspect, 48-year-old Jesus Salgado, remained hospitalized on Thursday as Warnke called for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. The sheriff called it one of the worst crimes he has seen over his 43 years in law enforcement and pleaded for Salgado's accomplice to turn himself in.
"There's some things you'll take to the grave. This to me was pure evil," he said in an interview Thursday.
The bodies of 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri; her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, were found by a farm worker late Wednesday in an almond orchard in a remote area near the town of Dos Palos, about 50 kilometers south of Merced.
Salgado was previously convicted of first-degree robbery with the use of a firearm in Merced County, attempted false imprisonment, and an attempt to prevent or dissuade a victim or witness. Sentenced to 11 years in state prison, in that case, he was released in 2015 and discharged from parole three years later, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
He also has a conviction for possession of a controlled substance, the department said.
Relatives of Salgado contacted authorities and told them he had admitted to them his involvement in the kidnapping, Warnke told KFSN-TV on Tuesday.
Salgado tried to take his own life before police arrived at a home in Atwater — where an ATM card belonging to one of the victims was used after the kidnapping — about 14 kilometers north of Merced. Efforts to reach Salgado's family were unsuccessful Thursday.
The victims were Punjabi Sikhs, a community in central California that has a significant presence in the trucking business with many of them driving trucks, owning trucking companies or other businesses associated with trucking.
