Family mourns deadly Merced County kidnapping of four two years later

Time stands still for a Valley family mourning the unthinkable loss of four loved ones.

Gabe Ferris Image
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Family mourns deadly Merced County kidnapping of four two years later
Family mourns deadly Merced County kidnapping of four two years laterA Merced County family is still mourning the loss of their loved ones two years after prosecutors say they were kidnapped and killed.

MERCED COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Merced County family is still mourning the loss of their loved ones as Thursday marks two years since prosecutors say Aroohi Dheri, Jasdeep Singh, Jasleen Kaur, and Amandeep Singh died at the hands of Jesus Salgado in a chilling kidnapping.

"He took his gun out, and he walked through this door, which everybody has seen," family member Sukhdeep Dheri told Action News.

Surveillance cameras captured the tragedy as it began to unfold outside the family business. Now, for the first time, the family is showing the public inside.

"Here were two desks, office desks," Dheri said. "Both Jasdeep and Amandeep, they were sitting here. And Jasleen, she was doing some dishes in the sink."

Action News saw the very spot where the victims were working the morning of October 3, 2022. It was a happy time in their lives, family members say. They had opened the new trucking yard one week before.

Salgado was a former employee.

"He kidnapped them at gunpoint and took them away from here," the wife of Amandeep Singh, Jaspreet Kaur, said.

The surveillance video captured what happened next. It appears to show Salgado leading Jasdeep and Amandeep out the backdoor with their hands tied together.

"That's the door they entered," Dheri said. "That's the door he took them."

Investigators say Salgado took the family of four to an almond orchard near Dos Palos and killed them. Salgado has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder and other charges.

"We are not giving up," Kaur said. "We are not going to stop. We demand for justice."

Court records show Salgado is next due in court n October 14 for a procedural hearing.

A judge has already sentenced his brother, Alberto Salgado, to three years and eight months in prison for aiding in the crime.

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