Police Find Weapons, Chains in Camper : Second Woman Alleges She Was Also Held Captive in Truck

Los Angeles police detectives searching a camper in which a woman says she was enslaved for 14 months found weapons, chains and handcuffs Tuesday, while a second woman told authorities that she too was held captive, raped and beaten in the same vehicle.

The camper was impounded after police on Monday evening arrested a man and two women who were living inside. All three were booked on suspicion of kidnaping. The man, identified as Robert A. Gonzalez, 38, faces arraignment today on rape and other charges, police said.

Six children, ages 1 1/2 to 9 years, who were living with Gonzalez and the women, were also taken into custody and put into foster homes, said Lt. Rick Morton of the Police Department’s Newton Division.

Authorities located the white Ford camper in an Azusa neighborhood after a tip from a woman who realized that it matched a description she saw on television news. The woman and her husband, Margaret and Benjamin Corona, had allowed Gonzalez to park the camper behind their house because they felt sorry for him and the children.

A search of the camper Tuesday morning yielded loaded weapons, including one sawed-off shotgun and several handguns, chains, a lock and electrical wires, police said.

Later, neighbors discovered something the detectives apparently missed: a baby carriage stuffed with 16 boxes of ammunition, three pairs of handcuffs and two walkie-talkies, all of which were later turned over to police. Also among the belongings recovered were blank birth and baptismal certificates, a church seal and a ski mask with eyeholes cut into it.

Police last week put out a West Coast alert for the vehicle after a 27-year-old Guatemalan immigrant reported that she had been held captive inside the camper for 14 months and was frequently raped, beaten, tortured with electrical shocks and forced to cook and clean. Chained up nightly, she escaped Sept. 2 when her captors fell asleep, leaving a key within her reach.

After composite sketches of Gonzalez circulated, a second woman contacted police this week and described a similar ordeal, Detective Michael Lewis said. The woman, a 24-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, said she had been held by Gonzalez for nearly three months last year and was also beaten and raped before escaping.

She said she never reported the incident because she feared deportation.

Police have declined to release the name of either woman.

Both victims told detectives that they were lured to the camper with the promise of a job. Once there, they were overpowered and made virtual slaves.

The children who were in the camper apparently had been fathered by Gonzalez but it was unclear if either of the women arrested with him was the mother, police said.

“He said these were his two women, and the kids belonged to all of them. That was kind of his philosophy,” Lewis said.

2 Women Arrested

The two arrested women were identified as Yolanda Garcia, 28, and Margarita Ruvalcaba, 30. They were being held without bail in the Sybil Brand Institute, while Gonzalez was at the Parker Center jail.

Gonzalez, who police said had an arrest record and used several aliases, managed to win the sympathies of strangers who were eager to help someone they believed to be struggling to provide for his large family. Many of those who had made his acquaintance expressed shock when told of his arrest.

Pete Lopez, 54, the owner of Transmission Pete’s in Azusa, gave Gonzalez part-time work after he appeared at his shop on the morning of Sept. 8 with two of his little girls in tow.

The English-speaking man introduced himself as Paul Garcia and asked for any job, saying he needed to buy food for his family and find a place to park his camper.

‘Seemed So Humble’

“I felt so sorry for him,” Lopez said. “There he was with his two children, telling me that he lived in a camper. He seemed so humble and easygoing.”

Lopez gave Gonzalez odd jobs, paying him about $130 over two weeks. When Gonzalez asked for help in finding a place to park his camper, Lopez recommended him to his nearby friends, Margaret and Benjamin Corona.

On Sept. 16, Gonzalez, again with his two girls, approached the Corona house.

“He was walking down the street and just came up and knocked on my door and asked if he could park at my house for a while,” said Benjamin Corona, 35. “When I saw his children and thought of his situation I could not turn them away. I gave the children a soda and told him bring the truck and park in the driveway.”

But Gonzalez asked to park in the back yard instead.

‘Never Bothered Us”

For more than a week the family drew water from a garden hose and cooked on a hot plate fueled by a tank of propane. Only once did one of the women speak to Margaret Corona, when she asked permission to use the house phone to call Gonzalez at work because she needed medicine for her sick infant.

“They kept to themselves; they never bothered us,” Benjamin Corona said. “He offered to give me $20, but I told him no, buy food for your family with the money.”

It was last Friday, while watching television news, that Margaret Corona saw a composite drawing of Gonzalez and recognized the camper description.

“It didn’t know what to do. I felt bad calling the police on this poor family. What if it wasn’t them?” Margaret Corona asked.

Local police took her information and referred her to Los Angeles detectives.

Times staff writers Franki Ransom and Stephen Braun contributed to this story.