A woman who was 15 when she disappeared from her home 10 years ago has been reunited with her family after telling police she was kidnapped by her mother’s ex-boyfriend who sexually assaulted her, forced her to marry him and fathered her child.
Police in Santa Ana, California, arrested Isidro Garcia, 41, of Bell Gardens, on suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment.
Police described a decade during which the victim — abused mentally, physically and sexually by her captor — was moved at least four times and given multiple fake identities to hide her from family and authorities.
Garcia allegedly told her that her family had stopped trying to find her and that if she tried to contact them they would be deported.
“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,” a police statement said, Irish Independent informs.
