Petaluma police are investigating an alleged kidnapping of a 25-year-old woman by a stranger earlier this month.
Petaluma police are investigating an alleged kidnapping of a 25-year-old woman by a stranger earlier this month, police said Monday.
The victim who attended an event at the Mystic Theater & Music Hall in downtown Petaluma on Nov. 9 had been drinking alcohol, became lost and called a friend for help around 10:20 p.m., police said.
A friend of the victim asked police to check on the victim’s welfare and police searched for the woman. Police said the woman’s friend then called them back to report she found her sitting next to a man on a park bench near the downtown Starbucks.
At first the friend thought the man was trying to help the victim. The friend walked the victim to a business where the victim waited until her friend finished some work.
Police said when the woman finished her work she noticed the victim was gone, but had left her cellphone on a desk. Surveillance video from the business showed a person take the victim from the office, police said.
Officers then received a call around 12:10 a.m. from a man who said he had just picked up a distraught woman on D Street near Red Hill Road and was bringing her to the Petaluma Police Department.
The distraught woman turned out to be the victim who said she was fleeing from a suspect who had her in the back of his vehicle and was threatening to kill her, police said.
The man who called police said the suspect was following him as he drove to the Police Department. He gave a description of the suspect’s vehicle, license plate number and location and officers stopped the suspect’s gold 1997 Toyota Camry in downtown Petaluma.
The suspect was identified as Gumerlindo L. Ordonez, 40, of Petaluma. He was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of making criminal threats. He posted bail on Nov. 10, police said.
Police continued to investigate, re-interviewed the victim, reviewed new surveillance video and got an arrest warrant for kidnapping and burglary. Police seized Ordonez’s car and arrested him on Friday.
Surveillance video allegedly showed Ordonez entering the business of the victim’s friend and holding the victim up as he walked her to a vehicle. The victim’s friend allegedly identified Ordonez as the man who was sitting on the bench with the victim near Starbucks.
Police said the victim did not know and never met Ordonez and the alleged kidnapping appears to be an abduction-by-stranger.
Ordonez is being held in the Sonoma County jail on $500,000 bail and is scheduled to be in Sonoma County Superior Court Tuesday morning.
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