Texas police were able to find and rescue a woman who had allegedly been kidnapped from her home by armed assailants demanding a $10,000 ransom from her husband.
The harrowing incident unfolded on Wednesday morning in the city of Stafford, a suburb of Houston, at about 6 a.m.
Stafford police said they responded to calls about a woman being kidnapped, and when they arrived at the residence, they found a distraught husband. The husband told police that he had rushed to help his wife when he heard her cries and found her struggling with three male assailants.
He tried to help but said that an assailant pointed a gun at him and that they threw his wife into her vehicle and drove away.
During the scuffle, a neighbor reportedly fired his gun at the assailants in an attempt to help the woman.
A short time later, the man said he received a phone call from a suspect who was threatening his wife unless he gave them a ransom of $10,000.
Police said they located the victim’s vehicle traveling with a pickup truck that was owned by the victim’s co-worker at a meat market. They then went to the victim’s place of work and obtained the co-worker’s address while confirming the individual owned the truck.
When they confronted the suspect at his home in Galveston, they found the victim bound on the floor of the truck with her eyes and mouth covered.
They arrested five suspects, four men and one woman. They were identified as Jose Gonzalez Hernandez, the co-worker of the victim; his wife, Claudia Elizabeth Rojas Rivas; Williams Noe Redondo Ramirez; Kelvin Gustavo Cruz; and Pablo Mendez Cruz. They were all booked into the Galveston County Jail.
Neighbors of the victims told KRIV-TV that they were shocked by the incident but celebrated with the husband and his daughters when they reported that the kidnapped woman had been rescued.
The rescued woman was treated at a hospital before she was released.
Here’s a local news report about the incident:
Stafford woman kidnapped by co-worker, 4 otherswww.youtube.com
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