CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been charged with kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl in 1999 in California.
The girl was forced into a car and repeatedly sexually assaulted before being let go, according to a Santa Ana Police Department news release. Cold case detectives reviewing the crime in 2016 said DNA evidence pointed to Ismael Salgado, 36, of Hermosa.
"The young girl that got away was very lucky, and in fact we are lucky that this victim got away because God only knows what they would have done," said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, according to KTLA5.
In 1999, the girl and a friend were walking home in Santa Ana when two men drove up and then lured and forced the girls into their car, police said. One of the girls escaped, but when the other girl tried to run away the men pulled her back into the car by her hair, police said.
The men covered the girl's mouth so she couldn't scream as they filled the car with gas at a gas station, and then they drove her to a secluded parking lot and raped her, police said. Afterward, they drove to another parking lot and again raped her, police said.
The men released the girl, who told police about the kidnapping and sexual assault, police said. Officers investigated at the time but were not able to identify the men.
Earlier this year, detectives in the Santa Ana Police Department's cold case rape project reviewed the case and had DNA testing done on evidence from the crime, police said.
After comparing the DNA to state and national databases, investigators found it matched Salgado, police said. Salgado lived in Santa Ana for most of his life but recently moved to Chicago, police said.
FBI agents arrested Salgado in Chicago and he was taken to Orange Couny in California, where he has been charged with kidnapping to commit a sex offense and rape, police said.
Jose Plascencia, 36, a man who lived with Salgado in Santa Ana in the late 90's, has also been charged in the incident, police said.
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