A girl, her parents and her uncle were found dead in an orchard days after they were kidnapped at gunpoint in central California.
Eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her parents Jasleen Kaur and Jasdeep Singh, and her uncle Amandeep Singh, were kidnapped by a man Monday from their business in Merced, San Joaquin Valley.
Their bodies were found in an orchard in Merced County, about 140 miles southeast of San Francisco.
“Our worst fears have been confirmed,” Sheriff Vern Warnke said.
On Monday, firefighters found Amandeep Singh’s truck on fire and a farmer found a phone belonging to one of the victims on a street in Dos Palos, a town 30 miles southwest of Merced.
The four were kidnapped by a convicted robber who attempted suicide the day after the kidnappings, authorities reported.
He didn’t ask for a ransom, but the sheriff said he believes it was a financially motivated crime and that he may have had an accomplice.
Relatives of suspect Jesus Salgado, 48, contacted authorities to inform them that he had admitted they were involved, the sheriff told KFSN-TV on Tuesday.
Salgado attempted to take his own life before police arrived at a house in Atwater.
He is under medical sedation in the hospital.
“I fully believe there was at least one other person involved,” Warnke said.
“My speculation is that it’s financial.”
The FBI, the California Department of Justice and other local law enforcement agencies are assisting in the investigation, the sheriff’s office said.
