A woman in southern California who disappeared 10 years ago when she was 15 has contacted police to say she was kidnapped and forced to marry her abductor, Radio New Zealand reports.
Police in Santa Ana say the 41-year-old Isidro Garcia has been arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of kidnapping, rape and falsely imprisoning a minor.
The unnamed woman went missing in 2004 and reported her abduction after finding her sister on the social networking site Facebook, the BBC reports.
Missing woman found alive: Alleged abductor Isidro Garcia charged with kidnapping for rape http://t.co/u6eAGD7tet pic.twitter.com/NmJTM9lh3V
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 21, 2014
Police said in a statement Garcia had been living with the girl's family at the time of her disappearance.
Corporal Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department told reporters that Garcia had "brainwashed" her. He said that in 2007, he forced the woman into a marriage, using documents he obtained in Mexico, and in 2012 the two had a child.
Recently, she contacted her sister on Facebook and was told that her mother had indeed been trying to find her, using a Spanish language newspaper and television station.
