Watsonville Officer Reunites Kidnapped Children with Mother after 18 Months

The Watsonville Police Department and United States Attorney Melinda Haag contributed to this report:

With special help from Watsonville Police Officer Elizabeth Souza, two children were reunited with their mother this month after over 18 months in captivity in Mexico.

The kids are United States citizens and the mother is a Mexican national, who has been living in Washington, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson.

On Dec. 19, 2012, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against three Mexican nationals, Jesus Salinas and Patricia Delatorre, of Mount Vernon, Washington, and Maria Guadalupe Valenzuela Castaneda, of Juarez, Mexico.

According to the indictment, in June, 2011, Salinas and Delatorre agreed, in exchange for money, to transport the children from Mexico, where the children were living at the time, to Washington State, where the mother of the children was living. Rather than returning the children to the United States, however, in July, 2011, Salinas and Delatorre transported the children to Castaneda, in Juarez, Mexico.

The conspirators then demanded more money from the mother for the return of the children. For months, the mother sent payments to the conspirators, but the children were never returned. The conspirators also threatened to kill the mother if she contacted law enforcement or if she went to Juarez in search of the children. 

On Dec. 11, 2012, the FBI, together with Mexican law enforcement, located the children in Juarez, Mexico, in the custody of Castaneda and placed the children into the temporary care of Mexican social services.

On Friday, March 1, the children, through the work of the FBI, the Watsonville Police Department, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the United States Department of State, were repatriated from Mexico to the United States, and reunited with their mother in San Jose, California.

"WPD Officer Elizabeth Souza in particular was instrumental in reuniting the children with their mother and traveled with the FBI to the Mexican border to retrieve the children and bring them back to their mother," Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said in an email.

“The FBI worked closely with our law enforcement partners in California, Washington, Texas and Mexico to safely recover these children from their kidnappers and reunite them with their mother,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnson. “We will continue to actively pursue and bring to justice those individuals who kidnap children and extort family members for money. These crimes take a terrible toll on the victims and we will hold the perpetrators accountable.”

The kidnappers are charged with one count of kidnapping minor victims in interstate and foreign commerce and two counts of unlawful seizure and detention of a United States national. The statutory penalty for the count of kidnapping a minor victim is a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, and a maximum term of up to life, and a maximum fine of $250,000.

The maximum statutory penalty for each count of unlawful seizure and detention of a U.S. national is life imprisonment, and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Salinas and Delatorre have already been arrested, but authorities are still looking for Maria Guadalupe Valenzuela Castaneda. Anyone with information about her whereabouts should contact the FBI at (408)369-8000 (San Jose field office), or (915) 832-5000 (El Paso, Texas field office).