Child Abuse Suspect Arrested in Mexico

A fugitive wanted on charges of enslaving and sexually abusing his teenage stepdaughter in El Monte was captured in Mexico after three years on the run, authorities said Wednesday.

Tito Dominguez, 59, was taken into custody in Gomez Palacios in the state of Durango, said Laura Bosley, an FBI spokeswoman.

“I am nervous. I’m scared,” said the stepdaughter, Melissa, now 22. “But in a way I am happy he finally got caught. I don’t want him to hurt anyone again.”

Melissa, who has a different last name, now lives with a sister. The Times prefers not to identify victims of sexual abuse.

The young woman is a student at Rio Hondo Community College trying to catch up on years of learning. Her parents never enrolled her in school, according to the charges, but kept her at home, forcing her instead to perform household chores and endure persistent beatings. Melissa entered a classroom for the first time in 1997 at age 17.

The child abuse charges against Dominguez, involving multiple rape counts as well as conspiracy to commit child endangerment, were characterized by county child-rights advocates as among the worst they had seen.

“This is a very dangerous individual who should be imprisoned for the rest of his days,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Christina S. Weiss, who charged Dominguez and prosecuted Dominguez’s wife, Maria Carmen Salcedo. She is serving nine years in prison after pleading no contest to abusing Melissa, who suffered broken bones and teeth, burnings, beatings, denial of medical attention and other indignities. Salcedo was charged with torture and faced a potential life sentence before entering into a plea bargain.

Melissa appeared on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” in 1999 to appeal for the public’s help in finding Dominguez. She had been rescued after two of her sisters told police that they had been abused. Police arrested Dominguez in 1997, and that day social workers seized the remaining children at their home on Allgeyer Street. The home has since been bulldozed.

Gloria Macias, one of the sisters who had gone to police, was declared Melissa’s conservator in 1997.

Dominguez was released after prosecutors determined that there was not enough evidence to make a case against him.

After inquiries by The Times in 1999, El Monte police renewed the investigation and re-interviewed Melissa and her sisters. Prosecutors subsequently charged Dominguez and Salcedo. Authorities said Dominguez disappeared from the El Paso area, where they believe he had fled, about that time.

During Salcedo’s preliminary hearing, Melissa testified that her mother had chipped her front teeth with a vacuum cleaner hose, and she displayed an ear maimed by gnawing and a burn on her hand from the stove.

Witnesses said she was choked, never went to school and was called “Cinderella.”

Salcedo, who asked forgiveness at her sentencing, said in an interview with The Times that Dominguez was to blame for much of the abuse. She said Dominguez physically abused her and terrorized her.

Dominguez faces up to 60 years in prison if extradited and convicted. The FBI became involved after El Monte police reported that he had fled to avoid prosecution. He allegedly enslaved and raped Melissa, who is slightly mentally retarded and has cerebral palsy, between 1993 and 1997.

“We just want him behind bars,” Macias said. “This is an early Christmas present for us.”

Macias said her sister continues to struggle to learn to read and write and is enrolled in math and physical education classes at Rio Hondo.