A Mexican illegal immigrant, who was previously deported of the United States, has been arrested five times after he tried to kidnap a teenage Alabama girl in a store parking lot around 5:40 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, according to officials.
Yordy Centeno Melchor, 31, is charged with second-degree attempted kidnapping and he is being held on $100,000 bond in connection with the incident.
“It appears that when he got to the parking lot, he pulled over the girl who was trying to move a buggy,” Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin told Fox News Digital. “And she was in that area or near his car. But he convinced her to come to the car. She is a young girl. She’s 17 years old.’
Another man nearby apparently saw the girl “in distress” and confronted Melchor, after which he reportedly fled the scene, and the sheriff’s office issued a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) warning for the area.
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Yordy Centeno Melchor, 31, is charged with second-degree attempted kidnapping and is being held on $100,000 bond in connection with the incident. (Elmore County Sheriff’s Office)
The sheriff’s office later obtained a search warrant for the suspect’s phone, and in his “notes” section he detailed “what he was going to do,” Franklin said.
“He wanted to give her $200, and I won’t get into that, but he was clearly trying to get her to get in the car,” the sheriff explained.
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Officials don’t know exactly when Melchor wrote the note, but the victim told authorities he showed it to her — possibly as a way to communicate to the girl that he was going to offer her money.
The alleged kidnapping attempt took place in a parking lot in Holtsville. (Google Maps)
An employee at the Holtsville store where the incident occurred shared video footage from the parking lot with authorities, who were able to obtain a license plate number for the suspect.
Days later, officials in a county 30 miles north of Elmore stopped a vehicle matching the one at the crime scene and ran the license plates, which matched the suspect vehicle. The driver, Melchor, also matched the suspect’s description.
“We will work with ICE. We will always work with ICE.”
Officials were later able to positively identify the suspect and his previous deportations. They are still trying to determine what led to Melchor being deported five times.
Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin said his office will cooperate with ICE. (Facebook)
After his arrest, a local woman saw Melchor’s mugshot and reported seeing a man with a similar appearance in the girls’ bathroom of a Walmart.
Melchor has ties to San Antonio, Texas, and Shelby County, AL. He was known to drive between those two areas to visit family, the sheriff said.
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The suspect could face charges if authorities can identify other victims.
Franklin described his officers as a “great group of guys” who “all have the same destiny to keep Elmore County safe.” He added that Elmore County is not a particularly large or small county, but that officials in the area “just don’t handle a lot” of these types of crimes.
