Parents Arrested on Suspicion of ‘Kidnaped’ Infant’s Murder : Crime: After a day of questioning by police over their conflicting statements, Santa Ana couple are held in daughter’s death. They claimed masked men took her.

Police Tuesday night arrested the parents of a 3-month-old girl--who the parents alleged had been grabbed by masked men on the street--on suspicion of murder.

Sgt. Bill Yackle said the couple were arrested at 9:20 p.m. Police had interviewed them throughout the day Tuesday.

Before leaving for the police station earlier Tuesday, the parents, Oscar Aguilar and his girlfriend, Rocio Cazares Huerta, said in an interview that their daughter, Jeny, who had Down’s syndrome, had been abducted by masked men Sunday night.

Aguilar said he was at home waiting for Huerta and Jeny to return from the neighborhood supermarket. But when Huerta finally did arrive, it was with a police officer and without the infant.

“The police said there was a problem with my baby,” Aguilar said. “My baby was gone.”

Aguilar said he and Huerta, both 23, spent the rest of the night at the Orange Police Department where, about 2 a.m. Monday, they were told that Jeny was dead. “I don’t know what happened to my baby,” Aguilar said.

Police Sgt. Jim Hudson said earlier Tuesday evening that interviews were continuing with “any number of witnesses” to the abduction that took place at 9:30 p.m. in the 1800 block of Collins Avenue. The child’s body was found three hours later, dumped behind a hair salon just off North Tustin Street.

“Our detectives are working to wrap this up, but the investigation is continuing,” Hudson said.

Aguilar said Huerta had been carrying Jeny in her arms when the two left their small apartment on Monroe Street in Orange for the walk to the Stater Bros. supermarket near Collins and North Tustin.

Shortly after stepping onto the 1800 block of Collins, Aguilar said, Huerta was accosted by two men who reportedly drove up in a brown, four-door sedan. One of the men, Aguilar and Huerta said, grabbed the mother and put a hand over her mouth while the other “threw” the infant into the car. They then drove west on Collins.

“She went screaming into the street,” Aguilar said, describing the events as she related them to him in Spanish.

She described the men as English-speaking, wearing black clothes and black masks. The parents’ description conflicted with police accounts Monday, which identified the suspects as wearing white T-shirts.

Asked about the conflicting descriptions, Hudson said: “Our statement remains the same. I can’t say what the father has said.”

Aguilar said Huerta was able to flag down a passing police officer, who drove her home.

“We spent most of the night at the Police Department,” Aguilar said. “At 2 in the morning, they told me my baby was dead.”

Police found the child about one block north of the abduction site, near a moving van parked behind the hair salon.

Police said Tuesday that they were aware of the cause of death in the case, but were withholding the information because of its possible effect on the investigation.

Aguilar, who stood in the family’s living room still strung with window decorations celebrating last weekend’s birthday of a friend’s child, said the only injury he learned of was a mark over one of his daughter’s eyes.

For the past six months, Huerta, Aguilar, Jeny and another daughter, 2-year-old Isabel, have been living in the apartment which they share with another family.

The streets around the 256-unit apartment make up a busy residential area where people commonly walk the short distance to the grocery store on Collins.

Stater Bros. President Jack Brown said no employees at the Orange store apparently witnessed the abduction.

“We feel terrible about it,” Brown said.