Read the latest on this report



UPDATE: A man accused of kidnapping a 15-year-old girl in 2004, then sexually assaulting her over a decade, was expected to be in court Thursday.

Isidro Medrano Garcia, 42, was charged with one count of rape, three counts of lewd acts on a minor and one count of kidnapping to commit a sexual offense, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. If convicted of all five felonies, Garcia would face up to 19 years to life in state prison.

EARLIER:

The woman’s story sounded unbelievable at first, even to investigators: a nearly decade-long cycle of sexual, physical and mental abuse carried out by a man who kidnapped her as a teen from a Santa Ana home and forced her to marry him and have a child.

Police are convinced that what neighbors saw as a normal, happy family concealed the truth of a woman being forced to raise her child and live with her alleged captor – her mother’s former live-in boyfriend – in an apartment in Bell Gardens.

Isidro Garcia, the man police suspect of putting the woman through her decade-long ordeal, was taken into custody this week after officers pulled him over on his way home from working a maintenance job at the Department of Children and Family Services in Commerce and arrested him on suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment,

The woman who for years was told that her loved ones had given up their search for her and that she had nowhere else to go was reunited with her family.

A KIDNAPPING

Investigators believe the woman came to Santa Ana in February 2004 at the age of 15, when she arrived from Mexico and moved in with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Garcia.

Soon after her arrival, police allege, Garcia began to sexually assault her when her mother wasn’t home. Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said Garcia also had a habit of “beating and assaulting” the mother.

In August 2004, police believe an “incident” between the girl’s mother and Garcia resulted in the 15-year-old leaving the apartment and going to nearby Jerome Park. Garcia, they say, followed her.

Garcia ignored her pleas that she had a headache and just wanted to go home, police said.

“He said, ‘You can’t go home, you are here illegally, you don’t speak the language and your mom has called the police. They will send you back. I’m your only hope,’ ” Bertagna said.

She took five pills that Garcia gave her for the headache. By the time she regained consciousness, police say, she was trapped in a locked garage in Compton.

Garcia returned to the Compton home with fake identification papers, Bertagna said, telling the girl that she would have to get used to her new name.

A DECADE OF ABUSE

She was held captive for the next 10 years, according to police, who say Garcia frequently physically and sexually assaulted her.

Her mother reported her disappearance to police, saying she and Garcia had gone missing after a “domestic violence incident.” The mother also told authorities she suspected Garcia had sexually abused her daughter, but had no proof, Bertagna said.

Araceli Ochoa, a leasing consultant who for 15 years has worked at the Santa Ana apartments where the mother lived at the time of the suspected kidnapping, said she remembers the woman who told her of her daughter’s disappearance about 10 years ago.

“She looked very concerned,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa said she vaguely recalls the woman saying that her daughter either left with the man or that he took her.

“She was very worried. I believe she was looking for her. And then I knew nothing more of her.”

To keep the woman from running, police believe Garcia told her that her family had stopped looking for her, and threatened that they would be deported if she tried to go back to them.

She tried to escape at least twice, Bertagna said, but was caught and “beat for her efforts.” As a result, the woman told authorities that she saw no way out of the situation, and didn’t try to escape again despite having the opportunity to do so.

“She’s told by him her family doesn’t care, her family is not looking for her. She’s got nowhere to go,” Bertagna said. “She doesn’t speak English.”

In 2007, Garcia and the woman were married, and investigators believe he went to Mexico to get false documents and used a different name and date of birth. In 2012, they had a child.

They worked at a night cleaning service, police said, “so he could keep a close eye on the victim.”

But to a neighbor who lived next door to the couple’s Bell Gardens apartment, Garcia and the woman seemed like a normal family.

“They were always happy,” said Erika Sanchez, a resident at the Bell Garden complex. “She was really happy when she found out she was pregnant.”

The woman was reserved and serious around those she didn’t know, but more friendly when she got to know people, Sanchez said. Garcia would always talk to his neighbors when he walked by, she added.

“He was a good neighbor, a good father, a good husband,” Sanchez said.

There seemed to be no indication that the woman was being held captive, Sanchez said. She often left the apartment.

“She had her own car,” Sanchez said. “She would leave and go out with friends.”

REACHING OUT

In recent months, the woman began reaching out to her sister on Facebook, and authorities say she gained the courage to contact police.

About 4 p.m. Monday, she walked into the lobby of the Bell Gardens Police Department and said she wanted to file a report about a domestic violence incident earlier that day at her and Garcia’s apartment in the 6500 block of Loveland Street.

As investigators interviewed the woman, she told them about the alleged kidnapping.

“She starts telling us an unbelievable and crazy story about how she was kidnapped 10 years ago and now has a baby and is married to the guy who kidnapped her,” Bell Gardens police Lt. Scott Fairfield said.

The woman had a small mark on her arm. She came to the police department with her young daughter.

Bell Gardens investigators contacted police in Santa Ana to check on whether any reports matched what the victim was telling them.

“Our cops almost didn’t believe it when she told it, but we called Santa Ana and she was telling the truth,” Fairfield said.

Garcia was arrested Tuesday during a traffic stop as he left his job.

“We waited for him to leave, then did the traffic stop on his vehicle,” Fairfield said.

The woman stayed at the police station with her daughter, who appears to be about 2, until her husband was in custody. She was picked up by a family member.

After nearly 10 years, police say, the woman has been reunited with her mother and sister. Garcia is behind bars in lieu of $1 million bail as he awaits a court hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Staff photographer Jeff Gritchen and staff writer Alma Fausto contributed to this report.