California woman says she was kept hostage for 10 years by her mom's ex-boyfriend

On Monday, an unidentified woman went to the Bell Gardens Police Department in southeast Los Angeles with her 2-year-old daughter to report domestic abuse. The story the 25-year-old woman told the police led to the arrest Tuesday of Isidro Garcia, 42, but for more than beating his wife: The police in nearby Santa Ana announced Wednesday evening that Garcia was being charged with kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor, and a decade of imprisonment.

According to police, Garcia began sexually molesting the woman soon after she arrived from Mexico to live with her mother in 2004, when she was 15 and her mother was living with Garcia. One night, after Garcia beat the mother, the girl ran out of the house to a park; Garcia followed, and through a combination of drugging, violence, and threats of deportation, he allegedly forced her to live with him, marry him in 2007 (using false papers to up her age), and have his child.

Garcia and the girl moved around, but lived openly in a Bell Gardens apartment complex for the past six years, the Los Angeles Times reports. The neighbors said they were in shock at the news of the arrest, both because Garcia appeared to be a doting husband and father and, as neighbor Javier Campos tells the Times, "the police station is right around the corner."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up