The four members of a family who were kidnapped from a California business on Monday have been found dead in an agricultural area, the Merced County Sheriff said Wednesday night.
A farm worker found the bodies of 8-month-old Arrohi Dheri; his mother, Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39; in a Merced County orchard, according to Sheriff Vern Warnke.
“It’s horribly, horribly pointless,” Warnke said. The bodies were all found in the same area, he said.
The California Department of Justice crime lab is expected to process the scene with investigators. The sheriff said authorities do not yet know a motive.
Warnke said he had been able to speak with the suspect, who is in custody after apparently trying to take his own life, but the sheriff did not share any details.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jesús Manuel Salgado, 48, was arrested after Merced County investigators linked him to the kidnapping. Salgado tried to kill himself just before the authorities found him. He was listed in critical condition at an area hospital and was unable to communicate with authorities, Warnke said at a news conference early Wednesday.
Warnke said at that press conference that he suspected the motive for the kidnapping may have been financial. Salgado was convicted in 2005 of robbery and false imprisonment. He was paroled in 2015.
The family was last seen on surveillance footage being forced out of a Merced trucking business at gunpoint Monday morning. The four family members were the only people in the business at the time, the sheriff said.
Salgado was reportedly seen walking into the business around 9 a.m. and then escorting the family to a pickup truck belonging to Amandeep Singh. In surveillance footage, Jasdeep and Amandeep Singh appeared to have their hands tied behind their backs.
Warnke said Wednesday night that the victims’ families had been notified.
