Four members of a family that had migrated to the United States from Punjab were found dead in California on Wednesday, reported the Associated Press.
The four members – eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her mother Jasleen Kaur, father Jasdeep Singh, and uncle Amandeep Singh – were kidnapped at gunpoint on October 3 from the office of their trucking business in California.
The bodies of the family members were found in a Merced County orchard, 240 km from San Jose, Sheriff Vern Warnke said, reported AP.
On Tuesday, the police had taken a suspect, Jesus Manuel Salgado, into custody after a credit card belonging to one of the victims was used at an ATM in the Merced County city of Atwater, reported CBS News. Salgado was hospitalised as he attempted to die by suicide before he was apprehended.
Surveillance footage released by the police before the bodies were found showed that the family was kidnapped by an armed man. The man led Jasdeep Singh and Amandeep Singh toward a pickup truck with their hands zip-tied. A few minutes later the suspect returned and left with Jasleen Kaur and Aroohi Dheri.
The police were alerted about the crime after finding Amandeep Singh’s black pickup truck burning on the side of a road, Reuters reported. While investigating, the officers were unable to reach the family and determined they had been abducted, leading them to the trucking business.
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