A woman who vanished as a teenager reappeared a decade later, telling police her mother’s ex-boyfriend drugged and kidnapped her, forced her to marry him and fathered their child.
In August of 2004, a 15-year-old was reported missing to the Santa Ana Police Department by her mother. The mother reported that her daughter went missing along with her cohabitant boyfriend, Isidro Garcia, after a domestic violence incident. At the time, the mother suspected Garcia of sexually abusing her daughter; however she had no evidence to support this belief. On May 20, 2014 the victim, now 25-years-old, disclosed the circumstances of her disappearance to law enforcement.
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The victim said in June of 2004, while living with her mother and sisters in Santa Ana, Isidro Garcia began sexually assaulting her. In August of 2004, after Garcia assaulted her mother, Garcia drugged the victim and drove her to a house in Compton.
There, Garcia provided the victim with falsified identity documents and locked her overnight in a garage to prevent the victim from fleeing. 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. The two moved on several occasions to avoid police detection. Garcia frequently physically and sexually assaulted the victim. Garcia arraigned for the two of them to receive employment at a night cleaning service, so he could keep a close eye on the victim. 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. Recently the victim contacted her sister on Facebook and eventually gained the courage to contact the police.
On May 20, 2014, Isidro Garcia, age 41 of Bell Gardens, was arrested and booked for:
209(b)(1) PC – Kidnap for Rape
288(c)(1) PC – Lewd Act With Minor
273(a) PC – False Imprisonment.
The case has been submitted to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Police say 41-year-old suspect Isidro Garcia was dating the mother of the victim and living with the family in Santa Ana, the urban center of Orange County. When the mother became suspicious Garcia was sexually abusing her daughter, authorities say Garcia assaulted the mother, drugged the teen and fled with her to a house in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, about 25 miles away.
HOW DID THEY REMAIN CONCEALED FOR A DECADE?
Police say Garcia made elaborate efforts to conceal her name and age. He provided the teenager, who had entered the country illegally, with false identification and used physical and emotional abuse to prevent her from fleeing. The teen was initially confined in a garage, and the couple moved frequently to avoid detection. In 2007 Garcia obtained false identification papers for her from Mexico so they could marry.
DID THEIR LATEST NEIGHBORS NOTICE ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS?
Apparently not, and some were shocked by the news. They knew the suspect as Tomas Medrano and called him a devoted family man who doted on his wife and toddler daughter. The couple attended church and were known for elaborate parties. Next-door neighbor Maria Sanchez said in Spanish that “he treats her like a queen.”
DID SHE TRY TO ESCAPE?
Yes, police say, at least twice, but she was severely beaten.
WHY DIDN’T SHE USE OTHER OPPORTUNITIES TO FLEE?
According to authorities, the victim was new the country, didn’t speak English and saw no way out of her situation as she lived under sustained physical and mental abuse. Medical experts say captor-victim relationships can sometimes involve a “trauma bond” -situations where people ought to leave but do not. Victims become “infantilized, dominated. They end up being attached to the person who dominates them, much like a child,” says psychiatrist Frank Ochberg.
