Santa Ana woman emerges from 10 years of captivity

Santa Ana Police Department

Advisory: SAPD Detectives locate missing person after 10 years victim of kidnap and sexual assault

In August of 2004, a 15-year-old was reported missing to the Santa Ana Police Department by her mother. The mother reported that her daughter went missing along with her cohabitant boyfriend, Isidro Garcia, after a domestic violence incident. At the time, the mother suspected Garcia of sexually abusing her daughter; however she had no evidence to support this belief.

On 5-20-14, the Victim, now 25-years-old, disclosed the circumstances of her disappearance to law enforcement.

The victim said in June of 2004, while living with her mother and sisters at 811 S. Fairview in Santa Ana, Isidro Garcia began sexually assaulting her. In August of 2004, after Garcia assaulted her mother, Garcia drugged the victim and drove her to a house in Compton. There, Garcia provided the victim with falsified identity documents and locked her overnight in a garage to prevent the victim from fleeing. Over the course of the following months and years, Garcia repeatedly told the victim her family had given up looking for her, and if she tried to go back to them, the family would be deported. The two moved on several occasions to avoid police detection. Garcia frequently physically and sexually assaulted the victim. Garcia arraigned for the two of them to receive employment at a night cleaning service, so he could keep a close eye on the victim.

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. In 2007, Garcia forced the victim into a marriage and in 2012 the two had a child.

Recently the victim contacted her sister on Facebook and eventually gained the courage to contact the police.

On 5-20-14, Isidro Garcia, age 41 of Bell Gardens, was arrested and booked for 209(b)(1) PC – Kidnap for Rape, 288(c)(1) PC – Lewd Act With Minor and 273(a) PC – False Imprisonment. The case has been submitted to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration.

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Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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