Mom and child safe; suspect still at large
Three people — a woman and her toddler and their suspected kidnapper — being sought in statewide Amber Alert were fed and sheltered Thursday night by a good Samaritan, who was unaware that the trio was the focus of the alert.
Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez allegedly abducted Samantha Adams and their 1K-year-old son, Zahid Adams, at gunpoint from a Commerce City home midday Thursday.
On Thursday afternoon, Carol Archuleta and her adult granddaughter, Lynnae Pacheco, were driving in Pueblo when they spotted Venzor-Gonzalez, Adams and the toddler.
The trio looked out of sorts and out of place, Archuleta and Pacheco said Friday afternoon outside an Adams County Sheriff’s Office substation.
“I stopped, I just felt compelled to help them,” Archuleta said.
Venzor-Gonzalez did most of the talking. He told Archuleta they had been “thrown out of his aunt’s house” in Pueblo and they didn’t have a place to stay.
Archuleta drove them to a nearby Walmart so they could buy diapers for Zahid.
“They seemed like normal people,” Pacheco said. “We just thought this is a normal get together, helping someone.”
Venzor-Gonzalez was friendly and appreciative that Archuleta and Pacheco offered aid.
”I’ll buy you gas, whatever you need, since you are helping us out,” Archuleta recounted Venzor-Gonzalez telling them.
During that time, Samantha Adams was withdrawn and quiet, while Zahid was happy and in good spirits.
At one point Thursday, Archuleta asked, almost jokingly, if the three strangers she had befriended were the people described in the Amber Alert. “I don’t have a car,” Venzor-Gonzalez an- swered, denying it.
Archuleta told the trio they could spend the night in her Pueblo home, with her family. They slept on a spare bed in the garage.
On Friday morning, as VenzorGonzalez fed cereal to Zahid in Archuleta’s home, he broke down, sobbing and crying. “I love my family,” Archuleta recounted him saying.
“We broke bread together,” Archuleta said, flabberghasted, after coming to the realization about the Amber Alert.
In retrospect, Samantha Adams was quiet and withdrawn in order to protect Zahid, Archuleta said.
Archuleta and Pacheco agreed to give the three a ride up to Castle Rock after breakfast on Friday. They put a babyseat in the back seat of the vehicle for Zahid.
In Castle Rock, Archuleta was pulled over by a police officer for speeding. The officer didn’t recognize the Amber Alert principals.
When they drove off from the traffic stop, Venzor-Gonzalez asked Archuleta to keep driving them up to the Denver area. She agreed.
The three were dropped off at Interstate 25 and Dry Creek Road.
A friend of Archuleta’s, a man named Kenny, had visited her home Thursday night and met the trio.
On Friday morning, Kenny saw a report on the Amber Alert and instantly recognized them. He tried to reach Archuleta but couldn’t. So, he called police.
Investigators then reached Archuleta on her cellphone. She had already dropped off the trio. Investigators told Archuleta, who was still in the Denver metro area, to pull over.
They picked her up and drove her to an Adams County Sheriff’s substation to be interviewed.
At about 1:30 p.m. Friday, an Regional Transportation District security officer spotted the trio on the Evans Station light rail platform.
When the officer approached, Venzor-Gonzalez took off running leaving Adams and Zahid behind.
The mother and daughter were being treated at a local hospital Friday afternoon, said Deputy Amanda Overton, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Venzor-Gonzalez, who is described as armed and dangerous, remains at large.
“Mauricio, please turn yourself in. … We beg of you,” Overton said at a Friday evening news conference.
As for the speeding stop in Castle Rock, Archuleta wasn’t ticketed.
She said: “God was with me.”