California family who were kidnapped at gunpoint found dead
A family who were kidnapped at gunpoint from their central California business two days ago have been found dead.
A farmworker found the bodies of a baby girl, her parents and her uncle at an orchard in Merced County according to the local sheriff.
“Our worst fears have been confirmed,” Sheriff Vern Warnke told reporters on Wednesday night.
The announcement came after authorities released footage from a surveillance camera of a man kidnapping 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her mother, Jasleen Kaur, father Jasdeep Singh and uncle Amandeep Singh on Monday.
Authorities said they were taken by a convicted robber who tried to kill himself a day after the kidnappings.
The family members were taken from their business in Merced, a city of 86,000 people about 200km southeast of San Francisco in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural heartland.
The surveillance footage released earlier on Wednesday showed the suspect first walking by the family’s property before talking to one of the men.
Later, it shows him leading the men, who had their hands zip-tied behind their backs, into the back seat of Amandeep Singh’s pickup truck. The suspect then went back to the trailer that served as the business office and led Jasdeep Singh, who was carrying her baby in her arms, out and into the truck before the suspect then drove away.
Warnke said the kidnapper made no ransom demands in what he believes was a financially motivated crime.
At the earlier news conference, Warnke said detectives had not been able to speak to the suspect, who has been under medical sedation in the hospital, but they were hoping to do so Wednesday with the help of doctors.
“I can tell you that every time he has even come near consciousness he has been violent,” Warnke said.
Investigators have not found a link between the suspect and the family to show they knew each other before the kidnapping.
Warnke said that while detectives have not established a clear motive or determined whether the suspect worked with any accomplices, he believes the suspect was driven by money and colluded with someone else.