Kidnap Suspect Fled to Mexico, Authorities Say

A convicted spousal abuser who allegedly kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and two children from a Lomita home in March is believed to have fled with them to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

Jose Delacruz’s 19-year-old son Alejo, who authorities said helped in the suspected kidnapping, was arrested March 28 in Bakersfield. He told Los Angeles sheriff’s detectives that Delacruz, 39; Delacruz’s ex-girlfriend Adriana Galindo, 27; and their daughters, Gypsy, 3, and Ariane,1, were no longer in the United States.

“The arrest confirmed that [Jose Delacruz] was down in Mexico, and that he left sooner than we expected. Based on what we were told, he fled almost immediately after the abduction,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Stan Baillif.

Alejo Delacruz faces three counts of kidnapping and burglary and is being held on $1-million bail, Baillif said.

Authorities said Jose Delacruz, his son and another man took Galindo and the girls from an aunt’s home in Lomita on March 6, a day after he was convicted for beating Galindo.

Authorities found the Chevrolet Suburban used in the alleged abduction a day later in Mission Hills, near a relative’s house.

Galindo’s aunt and other relatives recounted several attempts by Galindo to leave Delacruz. According to aunt Silvia Martinez, Galindo told her that a battered women’s shelter had arranged for her and her children to relocate to Chicago last fall, but that they turned back when they reached Colorado.

“She was terrified of him,” Martinez said.

Investigators said Delacruz probably fled to the Mexican state of Zacatecas, where he has family. They have asked Mexican authorities for help finding him, Galindo and their daughters.

“He has enough family there that we can’t say for sure where he is,” Baillif said.

Baillif said relatives of Delacruz in Los Angeles have said that he, Galindo and the children are OK. But authorities have no information to confirm or discredit that at this point, he said.

“We want to verify at least that they’re safe,” Baillif said. “If something happened to her, God forbid, we want to know about that, because that changes a great deal the way we’ll deal with this,” he said.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department at (310) 539-1661.