Suspect Isidro Garcia Held In Kidnap, Girl Found After Decade Captive

The Inquisitr reported yesterday on a case out of California in which a girl allegedly kidnapped 10 years ago had been recovered alive, and information is emerging about the man arrested in connection with her decade-long captivity.

In our earlier article, we reported that early details on the California kidnapping were quite disturbing — and that it appeared the teen had been coerced to marry her alleged captor.

In addition, the victim reportedly gave birth to a child in 2012, years after her abduction. A police report indicated that the alleged kidnapper, 41-year-old Isidro Garcia, may have coerced the woman into marriage:

“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… In 2007, Garcia forced the victim into a marriage and in 2012 the two had a child.”

The complicated story is only beginning to unravel, but police say that Garcia — who is believed to have been living under the alias Tomas Rodriguez Medrano — was dating the girl’s mother back in 2004.

The couple cohabited, and during that year, Isidro Garcia allegedly assaulted the teen’s mother and absconded with the then 15-year-old girl. Threatening to cause the family to be deported, Garcia reportedly engaged in a physically and emotionally abusive dynamic with the kidnap victim over the course of the intervening years.

In 2007, Garcia married his victim, and in 2012, the pair had a child. Neighbors say that the revelations are hard to process, as they witnessed the couple “happily” playing with their toddler in Bell Gardens.

One neighbor said she never would have suspected the man’s secret, explaining:

“[The victim] had a lot of free time… He treated her as a queen.”

The alleged crime began to unravel, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna says, when the woman reported a domestic dispute.

Local news stations say that eventually, the 25-year-old woman (who remains unnamed as the subject of a sexual abuse case) admitted that she had been abducted nearly a decade ago:

“It was during that conversation she told officers she that was a missing person who had been kidnapped… ‘She was in fact taken and held against her will for the past 10 years,’ according to Bertagna.”

In a news release, police detailed how the suspect had allegedly managed to prevent the woman from attempting to contact her family:

“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.”

Bertagna describes a chilling scenario entailing pervasive psychological control, adding:

“The psychological part of this is… she is now taken away from her family, told that her family is not looking for her, told that her family doesn’t care… He’s the only one there for her. She doesn’t know anybody.”

Following the alleged 10 year long kidnapping, Isidro Garcia remains in custody on suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor, and false imprisonment.

[Image: Santa Ana Police]