New developments in bizarre kidnapping, torture case of Clovis girl

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Criminal charges were filed Thursday against a Valley woman.

She's accused of trying to save her relationship with a local tech executive by orchestrating his daughter's kidnapping and torture.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Sandra Garcia, 40, in March but she bailed out.

Investigators say Garcia enlisted help from her cousin and her son to put a scare into the 13-year-old girl and get her sent away from her father's home.

They used apps to try and erase their electronic footsteps, but they still left behind a trail, and investigators followed it.

The school bus dropped off a 13-year-old girl at her home north of Clovis in February and the crime was already in motion.

The girl's dad wasn't home, but four masked men were waiting for her.

They put her in the trunk of a car, took her to a remote field, stripped her, beat her and left her alone.

Sandra Garcia, Miguel Carriedo and Mark Anthony Roque are all now charged with kidnapping, torture, and conspiracy.

"The DA doesn't have to prove it happened, just has to prove there was an agreement to commit these acts and that something was done in furtherance of that agreement," legal analyst Tony Capozzi explained.

An Action News reporter uncovered a warrant in which investigators reveal the plan was hatched about a week earlier.

Garcia and the girl's father were on the outs and detectives found evidence Garcia thought the kidnapping could bring them closer together and keep her in the lifestyle she'd been living.

She asked her cousin and her son for help and said it'd be easy because the home had no security.

Investigators say Garcia used a burner app when she discussed the plot, trying to communicate in secret but detectives traced all the calls.

And once they connected her to Carriedo, they realized he owned a car matching the one used by the kidnappers.

Capozzi says the case is bizarre, but seems pretty clear cut.

"The fact that they hooked up their phones to some kind of a burner type phone, the fact that they went to the school to check it out," he said.

"The fact that they were at the house to get her when she got off the bus - any one of those would be enough to get a conviction in this case."