A California woman who was kidnapped, held captive, and repeatedly sexually assaulted for nearly ten years escaped Monday.
Isidro Garcia, 41, was charged Tuesday with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and lewd acts with a minor. The 25-year-old victim's name has not been released.
On Monday, the woman told Bell Gardens police that her husband, and the father of her three-year-old child, was actually a man who kidnapped her from a park in Santa Ana in August 2004.
The woman's family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in February 2004, and Garcia was her mother's boyfriend. In June 2004, Garcia moved in with the family. The victim's mother told police that back then, she suspected her then 15-year-old daughter was being raped by Garcia, according to the Daily Mail.
After a fight at the home in August 2004, the teenage girl walked to a nearby park, and was followed by Garcia. She informed him that she had a headache, and he intimidated her into taking five pills.
When she awoke, she was locked in a Compton garage. Garcia brainwashed the girl into believing she would never escape.
"Over the course of the following months and years, Garcia repeatedly told the victim her family had given up looking for her, and if she tried to go back to them, the family would be deported," Santa Ana police said in a statement.
She was physically, mentally, and sexually abused, and made to marry her captor in 2007. She also gave birth to a daughter.
Neighbors thought the trio were a loving family, and could not believe the allegations.
"He treats her like a queen. He does his best to do whatever she wants," next-door neighbor Maria Sanchez told the Associated Press.
Despite outward appearances, the woman said she was living in fear.
"I was very afraid about everything, because I was alone. I [thought] I was alone, but I never was. My family was with me," she told ABC News.
After contacting her sister on Facebook, she decided to leave Garcia. She has since been reunited with her mother and sister.
"I'm happy. God is everything," her mother told the AP.
Garcia will be arraigned today.
The woman's escape comes nearly a year after a Cleveland trio escaped captivity after being held for over a decade. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were repeatedly physically, emotionally, and sexually assaulted after being kidnapped by Ariel Catro. Castro hung himself in his jail cell shortly after his sentencing.
