Charges filed in Sikh family’s US murder
MAN IN COURT OVER ABDUCTION AND DEATHS OF FAMILY IN CALIFORNIA
A MAN has been charged with murder after four members of an Indian-origin family, including a baby girl, went missing and were later found dead, authorities in California said.
Eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri; her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27; her 36-year-old father Jasdeep Singh, and her uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, were kidnapped at gunpoint and later found dead last week.
Jesus Salgado, 48, was arrested in relation to the abduction and deaths of the family last Thursday (6). He was charged on Monday (10) with four counts of first-degree murder, one for each life lost, prosecutors were quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times.
The Merced County district attorney’s office said in a news release that it would not make a determination this year on whether to pursue the death penalty in the case of Salgado. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The district attorney, Kimberly Lewis, declined to comment on the case beyond the charges.
Salgado appeared in court on Monday via video link. He did not enter a plea and asked for more time to find a lawyer. He is scheduled to appear again before the court on Thursday (13).
He was charged with the deaths of Jasdeep, Jasleen; their daughter, and Singh’s brother Amandeep, the report said.
An investigation into the disappearance of the family began last Monday (3) after police found Amandeep’s truck on fire in the town of Winton.
When family members could not locate Amandeep or his brother and sister-in-law, or the couple’s baby, they reported the family as missing.
The search led investigators with the Merced County Sheriff’s Office to the family business, Unison Trucking, where video surveillance showed a suspect abducting the family at gunpoint and leading them away in the truck.
Salgado attempted suicide last Tuesday (4) as investigators closed in on him as a suspect in the case, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. He was held in the hospital for two days and was then booked into jail.
He also faces charges of illegal possession of a firearm and arson for allegedly setting fire to the truck. His brother, Alberto Salgado, was also arrested in the case on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, accessory and destroying evidence.
Meanwhile, grieving relatives of the four Indianorigin Sikhs raised more than $300,000 (£273,234) to support their families in California as well as their elderly parents back in India.
Jaspreet Kaur, Amandeep’s widow, said in the fundraiser that her husband and his brother had been in the United States for 18 years, and supported not only their families in California but also their parents in India.