Kidnap Victim Met With Mom Before Police

'He worked hard for me and my daughter ... I didn't want that'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2014 6:16 AM CDT
Updated May 23, 2014 7:50 AM CDT
Kidnap Victim Met With Mom Before Police
Defense attorney Charles Frisco answers questions for a large group of reporters and cameramen at a news conference Thursday May 22, 2014.   (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Ken Steinhardt)

The woman who says she was held captive for 10 years by Isidro Garcia led a seemingly normal life: She went to Zumba classes, the beach, and Disneyland. But despite what she says was a decade of abuse, it wasn't until she got in touch with her mom that she finally went to police. The woman, who'd been conditioned to believe her mom had stopped looking for her, wished her a happy birthday via her sister on Facebook in April, police say. "The mother was able to show her that she was, in fact, looking for her" by sharing old news articles and noting she filed a missing-persons report, police say. Garcia's neighbors tell the AP the woman then reunited with her mom and sister on Mother's Day, and Garcia drove her to visit family in Anaheim last weekend. On Monday, she went to the police, located just two blocks from her apartment.

"She was different with us after" the visit, a neighbor says. "She was more serious, more distant." Another remembers Garcia saying three weeks ago that his wife's mother had come from Mexico and was causing trouble. Garcia has been charged with five felonies, all stemming from a three-month period in 2004. False imprisonment charges have not been filed, but an investigation is ongoing. Garcia's defense, per his attorney: The woman's claims are lies dreamed up because the couple is separating. Garcia treated his wife "like a queen," the lawyer tells the Los Angeles Times. The woman—still unnamed—spoke to KABC-TV, telling the network, Garcia "worked hard for me and my daughter, and he bought everything I want. But I didn't want that," she says. "I need love from my family, not things." (More kidnapping stories.)

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