Relatives plead for help to find California family kidnapped at gunpoint

Relatives of a family kidnapped at gunpoint from their trucking business in central California pleaded for help Wednesday in the search for an 8-month-old girl, her mother, father and uncle.

Family members said nothing was stolen from the trucking company but that their relatives were all wearing jewelry. Merced county sheriff Vern Warnke said that after the kidnapping, an ATM card belonging to one of the victims was used in Atwater, a city about 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Merced.

Relatives of Jesus Salgado, 48, contacted authorities reporting that he had admitted to them he was involved with the kidnapping of the family, Warnke told KFSN-TV on Tuesday. Salgado tried to take his own life before police arrived at a home in Atwater, and he has since been hospitalized, he said.

Warnke said the kidnapper made no ransom demands.

Family members told KXTV-TV that the trucking company office in Merced, a city of 86,000 people about 125 miles (200 km) south-east of San Francisco, had only opened about a week earlier.

The sheriff said detectives believe the kidnapper destroyed unspecified evidence in an attempt to cover his tracks.