CNN
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The search for a family of four abducted in California ended on Wednesday, with authorities recovering their bodies from a rural farming area days after they were abducted at gunpoint.
“Tonight our worst fears were confirmed,” Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said at a Wednesday night news conference. “Horribly, horribly insane what happened here.”
The body of 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri was found in the same general area as her parents Jasleen Kaur and Jasdeep Singh, along with the body of the child’s uncle Amandeep Singh, Warnke said. Authorities received a call in the area on Wednesday afternoon, he said.
The family had been missing since Monday, when authorities said they were abducted by a gunman and forced into a truck.
Police have taken into custody a man they believe to be a person of interest in the case. The man is speaking with authorities and a motive remains unclear at this time, the sheriff said.
Before the bodies were found, family members were begging the public for any information related to the case.
“Every store, gas station, everyone who has cameras, please check the cameras,” Sukhdeep Singh, a brother of one of the victims, told reporters on Wednesday. “We need the public’s help right now. Please help us… get my family home safely.
Another relative, identified only as Balvinder, described the family as “peace-loving” and said he owned a small business and was a longtime resident of the area.
“We are devastated. We are shocked. We die every moment without finding any clues,” Balvinder said.
Warnke said the man in police custody was convicted in 2005 in an armed robbery and forcible confinement case. The man was paroled in 2015. Warnke said the man acted alone in the previous case and knew the victims.
Warnke said he believes at least one other person was involved in the kidnapping, but “we have no supporting evidence.”
In a video released at a press conference earlier Wednesday, Jasdeep and Amandeep Singh are seen arriving at the family trucking business nine minutes apart. Shortly before 9am on Monday, Jasdeep encountered a man outside the business – who was carrying a bin bag and then pulled out what appeared to be a gun.
Jasdeep and Amandeep, with their hands tied behind their backs, are then seen escorted by the gunman into the back of a truck, who departs and returns six minutes later.
The shooter then re-enters the business and is seen taking Jasleen, who is carrying baby Aroohi, to the van.
A farmer found two of the victims’ cellphones on a road Monday, authorities said. At one point, the farmer answered the phone and spoke with a relative of the victims.
The person of interest, who attempted suicide, was sedated for being violent in hospital.
No charges have been filed, according to the prosecutor’s office. CNN is not naming the man in custody.
According to the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began at 11:39 a.m. Monday, when the California Highway Patrol responded to a 2020 Dodge Ram that was on fire and asked the Merced Police Department to help find the driver. vehicle owner.
About an hour later, at 12:35 p.m., Merced officers arrived at the truck owner’s address and met a family member there. Officers attempted to contact the couple and the child’s uncle, but were unable to reach them.
Later Monday at 1:04 p.m., Merced County Sheriff’s Office officers responded to a business on South Route 59. ‘During the primary investigation, detectives determined the individuals were kidnapped’ , the sheriff’s office said Tuesday.
The kidnapping involved a gun and restraints, according to Deputy Alexandra Britton, public information officer for the sheriff’s office.
In an initial statement on the case Monday, the sheriff’s office said it believes the family was abducted “against their will” from a business on the 800 block of South Highway 59 in Merced, which is between Modesto and Fresno in central California.
“We have no motivation behind this. We just know they’re gone,” Warnke said in a video message posted on Facebook.
Warnke also said investigators collected evidence indicating “individuals involved in this destroyed evidence in an effort to cover their tracks.”
On Tuesday, authorities took a 48-year-old man into custody as a person of interest in the case.
Britton said the man’s family contacted law enforcement and told them the man admitted to being involved in the kidnapping. Law enforcement contacted the man after the family called.
While they investigate, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office continues to ask the public to contact their office at 209-385-7547 to share any information they may have regarding the case. The FBI and California Department of Justice are also investigating.
Investigators learned Tuesday morning that a credit card belonging to one of the victims had been used at a bank in Atwater, Calif., the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Atwater is about nine miles northwest of Merced. Britton said it was unclear whether the 48-year-old man in police custody was the person who used that card.
After that transaction, investigators were able to identify the 48-year-old as a person of interest in the case and subsequently took him into custody, officials said.
The man attempted suicide before law enforcement intervened, and he was in critical condition Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office.
Authorities were working to confirm that the man in custody is the same suspect whose photos they released Monday, Alexandra Britton, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, told CNN.
“Investigators have obtained a CCTV photo of a subject performing a banking transaction where the person appears to resemble the CCTV photo from the original abduction scene,” the sheriff’s office said.
On Monday, officials described the suspect as a man with a shaved head and was last seen wearing a hoodie. He was considered armed and dangerous, officials said.
