- Four family members, including an 8-month-old baby, were found dead Wednesday in central California.
- Aroohi Dheri, Jasleen Kaur and Jasdeep Singh, and Amandeep Singh were kidnapped Monday, police said.
Four family members, including an 8-month-old baby, were kidnapped at gunpoint from their family business in central California on Monday, according to the Merced County Sheriff's Office.
Two days later, their bodies were found in a rural almond orchard by a farmer.
In a press release, the department said 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri and her parents, Jasleen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36, were taken against their will at their business in the Central Valley community earlier this week. The child's uncle, Amandeep Singh, 39, was also kidnapped.
The department did not reveal the name of the business but noted that it was located on the 800 Block of South Highway 59 in Merced County, California.
At 5:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, deputies responded to reports of a deceased person, later locating remains belonging to the four kidnapped family members.
"Our focus now has turned to the prosecution of this horrific crime," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
On Tuesday, authorities identified Jesus Manuel Salgado, 48, as a person of interest after one of the kidnapped family member's ATM cards was used at a bank in Atwater, California, around 12 p.m. local time. Upon being taken into custody, the sheriff's office said he attempted to take his own life and is now receiving medical treatment. On Thursday, police named him as a suspect in the kidnapping.
"There's just no words right now to describe the anger I feel and the senselessness of this incident," Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said during a press conference Wednesday night. "I said it earlier, there's a special place in hell for this guy. And I mean it."
In outdoor surveillance footage of the kidnapping, Jasdeep Singh arrived at their business at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, followed by Amandeep Singh. Jasdeep Singh was seen making contact with the suspect, who pulled out a gun and entered the business, per a report by ABC News.
At 9:11 a.m., the suspect was seen leaving the building, followed by the Singh brothers, who had their hands zip-tied behind their backs. The suspect put the two men into a pickup truck in the parking lot behind the building. The truck left before returning a few minutes later, when the armed suspect re-entered the building and was seen escorting Jasleen Kaur and her baby out of the business and into the truck.
At around 11:30 am on Monday, authorities responded to a Black 2020 Dodge Ram truck that had been set on fire, according to a statement. The Merced County Sheriff's department discovered the truck belonged to Amandeep Singh who they then tried to contact but were unable to.
Eventually they got a hold of another family member who also tried to contact Amandeep Singh, as well as Kaur and Jasdeep Singh. When they were not able to contact their family members, they called the sheriff's department to report them missing. According to the department, at around 1:04 pm, authorities responded to a business on South Highway 59, where they later determined a kidnapping had occurred.
Earlier this week, detectives obtained a surveillance photo of a person at the bank who appeared to be similar to the suspect captured during the kidnapping incident, but authorities later said the person photographed at the bank was not the suspect in custody.
The Merced County Sheriff's Office has not yet released a motive for the kidnapping, but investigators believe the motive could be money, KCRA reported. The Merced County Sheriff's Office did not respond to Insider's request for comment.