Riverside Police Make Arrest In Child’s Kidnapping
A 30-year-old man was behind bars today for allegedly abducting a 9-year-old Riverside girl who was taken from her home as she slept, assaulted and dumped out of a car several miles away.
Jose Wilson Rojas Guzman, 30, a former roommate of the girl’s mother, was booked Monday night on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping with injury and aggravated child sexual assault in connection with the girl’s May 7 abduction.
Guzman was originally questioned May 9, the day after the girl was found, Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said.
“He was uncooperative, uncooperative to the point of refusing to disclose where he lived,” Diaz said.
The chief said Guzman was in the country illegally, so he was turned over to federal immigration authorities. Police obtained a DNA sample from Guzman, and tests confirmed Monday that it matched DNA collected from the girl and crime scene, Diaz said.
The child, whose identity was not released, was asleep with her older brother and younger sister in a second-story apartment in the area of Pike Street and Herman Drive when she was forcibly taken the night of May 7, police said.
Sgt. Wayne Ramaekers said the child’s mother — a single parent — was at work and had left the boy in charge of watching his sisters.
The suspect accessed the apartment through an unlocked window, according to Ramaekers. The other two youngsters were not harmed during the kidnapping.
People living on Giles Court, adjacent to the La Sierra University campus — about 2 1/2 miles from where the abduction occurred — were awakened early in the morning of May 8 when the child began knocking on doors, asking for help, according to Ramaekers.
The disoriented girl told officers she had been carried out of her residence by a man, apparently a stranger. She said she was later pushed out of a car.
Police said last week they were examining security video from the area where the child was kidnapped. They were also investigating whether a blue or black pickup truck seen in the vicinity around the time of the abduction may be connected to the crime.
