Ritu Jha-
The Merced County Sheriff’s office announced on Tuesday that the suspect in the abduction of four members of an Indian American family has been arrested. The family, however, has not been located yet.
Merced County is 101 miles southeast of San Jose, California. It has a large concentration of Sikh and Punjabi communities, most of them in the farming and trucking business.
Deputy Alexandra Britton, Public Information Officer, Merced County Sheriff’s Office, told indica, “The family are residents of Merced and were kidnapped from a business.”
According to the sheriff’s report, the four family members are eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri, Jasleen Kaur, 27 (mother), Jasdeep Singh, 36 (father), and an uncle Amandeep Singh.
Britton added, “We are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice and other agencies to locate them. As far as we know, currently, we have only one suspect.”
Asked if there was any ransom demand or a letter, the deputy said, “I cannot speak on that. It’s an ongoing investigation and detectives are working on this and doing all in their power to locate the victims involved.”
The family’s cousin, Sukhdeep Singh, said he cannot talk but sounding worried, just said, “It’s been over 24 hours.”
Amandeep, one of the abductees, is into the trucking business with his cousin as partner. They run ‘Unison Trucking’ in Merced.
According to a press release from the sheriff’s office: “On October 4, 2022, in the morning hours, Merced County Sheriff Detectives received information that one of the victim’s ATM cards was used at an ATM located at a bank in the City of Atwater. Investigators obtained the surveillance photo of a subject making a bank transaction where the person is similar in appearance to the surveillance photo from the original kidnapping scene.”
It added, “At approximately noon, working in conjunction with our local law enforcement partners, the Sheriff’s Office received information that identified Jesus Manuel Salgado (48-years-old) as a person of interest in this investigation. Prior to law enforcement involvement, Salgado attempted to take his own life. Salgado is in our custody, currently receiving medical attention and in critical condition.”
According to Fox News, on October 3, the local fire department was dispatched to Buhach Road and Oakdale Road in Winton for a report of a vehicle on fire. Authorities identified the vehicle as Amandeep Singh’s black 2020 Dodge Ram truck and began an investigation into the incident.
However, in the meantime one of the family members soon contacted the sheriff’s office to report the four family members missing after unsuccessfully trying to contact them.
