Francisco Javier Hernandez-Reyes, 18, makes a first appearance Tuesday morning in Clark County Superior Court in connection with the abduction of a 4-year-old girl. (Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Three teenagers have appeared in Clark County court to face allegations that they were involved in a plan, apparently two weeks in the making, to help a mother abduct her 4-year-old daughter during a supervised visit.
Aranza, who had been in foster care since 2017 when she was removed from her home, was reportedly taken Thursday morning during a supervised visit at Vancouver Mall.
Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said in an email Tuesday that authorities believe Lopez-Lopez has crossed the border into Mexico with her daughter. However, police are in contact with the woman’s family and are working to determine her exact location, she said.
Two of the teens allegedly involved in the scheme made first appearances Tuesday morning in court.
Francisco Javier Hernandez-Reyes, 18, appeared in Superior Court on suspicion of two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of first-degree robbery. A 15-year-old boy, identified in court documents as Alejandro Xulu-Sop, appeared in juvenile court on the same allegations. He was ordered detained until his next hearing Nov. 19.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, a passerby located Jose Orellana-Gomez bound in duct tape in Vancouver’s Bagley Downs neighborhood sometime on Thursday.
Orellana-Gomez told police that an acquaintance, Lopez-Lopez, invited him to her apartment because she needed help with a ride to Centralia. He spent about 20 minutes in the apartment with her before three men in masks carrying knives showed up, according to the affidavit.
The assailants told Orellana-Gomez that they were taking his car and demanded his credit card and PIN. Orellana-Gomez was tied to a chair for about 12 hours before he managed to free himself and find help, according to the affidavit.
While officers were searching the apartment, a Child Protective Services worker told them that Lopez-Lopez had fled with her child during a supervised visit that same day. Detectives investigated further and found Lopez-Lopez was likely on her way to Mexico with her daughter, according to police.
Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families spokeswoman Debra Johnson said when a parental visit is supervised, sight and sound supervision is required. This is true when a contracted provider is supervising, as was the case with Lopez-Lopez, Johnson said.
It is determined on a case-by-case basis what bathroom rules are in place during supervised visits, Johnson said, without directly saying whether that’s how Lopez-Lopez carried out the abduction. An abduction of this sort is “exceedingly rare,” she added.
On Saturday, investigators confirmed Lopez-Lopez, her daughter and a teenage girl seen with Lopez-Lopez at the mall were spotted driving Orellana-Gomez’s red Chevrolet Cobalt, with Washington license plate BLK1552.
California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert once the vehicle Lopez-Lopez was driving was identified. The alert has since been canceled due, in part, to the belief that the mother and daughter are in Mexico.
Two weeks in making
Investigators tracked down the first suspect in the case, Garcia-Valdovinos, through social media, according to a probable cause affidavit. He reportedly named the two males and teenage girl seen heading south with Lopez-Lopez.
He told police he was asked by Lopez-Lopez to participate in the kidnapping with three other males. He said he was aware she intended to kidnap her daughter from Child Protective Services and steal Orellana-Gomez’s car, according to the affidavit.
His co-defendant, Hernandez-Reyes, gave police a similar account.
“(Hernandez-Reyes) said he felt badly for her losing custody of her child and was willing to help her,” an affidavit filed in his case says.
Garcia-Valdovinos said he guarded Orellana-Gomez during the night and assisted in taking him to the bathroom. He and Hernandez-Reyes purchased a roll of duct tape, a car seat for the trip to Mexico and clothing to dress Aranza as a boy, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit filed in Hernandez-Reyes’s case states that he also purchased over-the-counter sleeping medication to give to Orellana-Gomez in the apartment.
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In his interview with authorities, Xulu-Sop told police Lopez-Lopez “formulated the plan to kidnap her daughter from Child Protective Services roughly two weeks prior to this incident,” the affidavit says.
“She initially wanted help with the kidnapping of her daughter, and because her car was damaged, she needed to steal another car,” the court document states.
Xulu-Sop, Hernandez-Reyes and the alleged female accomplice waited on the deck of Lopez-Lopez’s apartment until she signaled for them to enter. They came into a bedroom wearing masks and wielding knives; Orellana-Gomez already had been “partially taped” by Lopez-Lopez, according to the affidavit.
Xulu-Sop told police he watched others secure the victim to the chair. He said he stayed in the room for most of the night talking to the man, giving him water and playing music. He further admitted to accompanying his accomplices in the stolen car the next day to Vancouver Mall and swapping vehicles with Lopez-Lopez, the affidavit says.
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