Authorities in Merced County, in central California, have reported this Friday that they have arrested a second suspect linked to the kidnapping and murder of four members of an immigrant family from the Sikh religious minority, including an eight-month-old baby. . The case has shocked an entity in which different races and ethnic groups coexist. California also has a homicide rate above the national average. The second detainee is called Alberto Salgado and he is the brother of Jesús Manuel Salgado, 48, who was arrested on Tuesday and who bears the main suspicions of the Singh family’s heinous crime.
Jasdeep Singh, 36, his wife Jasleen Kaur, 27, their daughter and Amandeep (39), Jasdeep’s brother, were kidnapped at gunpoint Monday morning from the family business, a trucking company. The event was captured by surveillance cameras placed outside the company. The images, released by the sheriff’s office earlier this week, show Salgado arriving with a white garbage bag in his hands. The suspect talks to the Singh brothers around 9 a.m. and then pulls a gun from the bag, according to County Law Enforcement Corey Gibson.
Jesús Manuel Salgado, who had a criminal record dating back to 2005, forces the Singhs into the back of a Dodge Ram pickup owned by Amandeep. He drives the vehicle off the property. Six minutes later, the cameras indicate, the suspect returns to the store. He exits the vehicle and enters the office, where he emerges seconds later with Kaur and his baby, who also get into the vehicle.
Hours later, the credit card of one of the hostages was used at an ATM in the town of Atwater, less than 16 kilometers from Merced. The operation put the authorities on alert, who, reviewing the images of the bank, found a man with a mask trying to withdraw money. It was not Jesús Manuel, but it was enough for the authorities to know that the suspect did not work alone. On Tuesday morning, Jesús Manuel Salgado attempted suicide before the police arrested him, for which he required medical attention. He has been charged with four counts of murder and kidnapping.
Hours following these images were recorded, the horror came. “Our worst fears have been confirmed,” Vern Warnke, the county sheriff, announced Wednesday when he announced that a local farmer had found the bodies in the followingnoon. “There is a special place in hell for this guy,” added Warnke, who has called the crimes “senseless.” The sheriff has said publicly that he hopes the prosecution will seek Salgado’s death penalty. California, however, has not executed any inmate since 2006.
Police told reporters Thursday that Salgado worked for the Singhs driving one of the company’s vehicles. He was fired, which would have triggered revenge in the mind of the man, who had been in prison for eight years until he left her in 2015 under parole. Since then he had had no problems with the law. His brother, Alberto, was arrested and accused of being an accessory to the murders and of trying to destroy evidence. Alberto is the man who appears in the images of the bank, trying to withdraw money from the accounts of his victims.
