4 Arrested In Connection With Kidnapping-For-Ransom Plot
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Authorities Friday said they have arrested four people in connection with a kidnapping-for-ransom case involving a 44-year-old female victim.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a news release that the unidentified woman had been taken Monday from Diamond Bar at gunpoint.
Thereafter, a ransom demand in the amount of $110,000 had been made to a family member of the woman for her safe return, authorities said.
The woman was rescued Wednesday in a Rowland Heights garage, authorities said. During the ordeal, authorities said she was bound and deprived of water and food, CBS2's Dave Lopez reported.
The suspects, identified by authorities as Francisco Inacua-Rosas, Uziel Cuevas Figueroa, Rocio Inacua and Judith Adriana Maldonado, have pleaded not guilty to one count each of kidnapping for ransom and conspiracy to commit a crime.
"Both Rocio Inacua and Uziel Figueroa then at gunpoint forced the victim down to the floorboard, bound, gagged and blindfolded her, and drove her to that garage in Rowland Heights, where she was kept," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Merill Landenheim said Friday at a news conference.
CBS2's Brittney Hopper picked up the story Friday evening.
The woman was kept in deplorable conditions.
Police released a photo of the kidnapping victim hugging a deputy after her rescue.
Deputies on Friday evening said the woman was friends and co-workers with one of the suspects. They believed that she had money, authorities said.
Deputies did not want to give specifics about how they solved the case or even give the exact location the woman was held other than to say someplace in Rowland Heights.
The victim was treated at a hospital and released. Hopper reported she is reunited with her husband and currently staying in "a secret location."
If convicted, the suspects -- being held on $2 million bail -- face a maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole, the D.A.'s office said.
