Arrest made: Girl’s kidnapping called part of plot by father’s ex to reunite with him

A fourth arrest was made in the kidnapping and assault of a 13-year-old Fresno County girl that investigators say was part of a plan by her father’s ex-girlfriend to bring about a reconciliation.

Brandon Roque, 25, of Madera — arrested last week — is the woman’s older son. Already arrested in the case were Sandra Garcia, 47; her other son, Mark Anthony Roque, 24; and her cousin, Miguel Carriedo, 46. All four remain in Fresno County Jail.

The kidnapping happened on Feb. 16, 2016, in the Academy neighborhood, a cluster of upscale homes east of Clovis. The 13-year-old, who was walking home from the school bus stop, said she was grabbed and forced into the trunk of a BMW by a group of masked men.

They drove her 20 miles to a remote area in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where they tied her to a tree, beat her and sexually assaulted her. After they drove away, she managed to free herself and — bruised and bloodied — walked more than a mile before getting help from a resident on the Cold Springs Rancheria.

Within two weeks, Garcia, Mark Roque and Carriedo were identified as suspects. The mother and younger son were arrested in June 2016, and Carriedo in August 2020.

At the time of the initial arrests, the Fresno County sheriff’s office said the kidnapping was part of Garcia’s plot to reunite with the girl’s father so that she would be allowed to stay in the Clovis home where he lived with his daughters. They said she apparently hoped that the kidnapping would scare the girl so much that she and her younger sister would go live with their mother.

In a petition for a restraining order filed by the father after the kidnapping, he said Garcia — whom he met on a dating site — had been living in his home for a year but that he had given her a date to leave after his daughters moved in. “Our backgrounds were different and there were difficulties at times, and I thought it was best for Sandra to move out,” he wrote in the document.

Brandon Roque, who was 19 at the time of the attack, is being held on charges of kidnapping, torture, conspiracy, sexual assault and intimidating a witness.