FBI agents arrested a third person wanted in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a woman and her 11-month-old daughter in Garner, state officials said Friday.
The kidnapping happened Monday night, police said. Officials on Tuesday evening arrested two others in connection with the case.
A woman and her 11-month-old daughter were kidnapped from their Garner home Monday night, police said
Masked people broke into their home and demanded $1 million before taking the woman and her baby, police said
Two suspects appeared before a judge Wednesday and a third arrest was announced Friday
"In the last half hour, the FBI arrested Eleodoro 'Leo' Estrada-Hernandez in connection to the kidnapping of a young mother and her baby. Hernandez was taken into custody by FBI Special Agents in Knightdale," the State Bureau of Investigation said Friday morning.
Garner police charged Estrada-Hernandez with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree kidnapping and other charges, according to the SBI.
Estrada-Hernandez and siblings Paola Duran Duran, 25, and Miguel Angel Duran Duran, 23, are accused of breaking into a Garner home and demanding Eliuth Alejandro Martinez give them $1 million. When he refused, they restrained him with duct tape and took his wife, Alondra Michelle Benitez De Jesus, and her young daughter, police said
Benitez and her daughter were found safe in Wake Forest on Tuesday, police said.
The Duran Duran siblings appeared virtually in a court hearing Wednesday afternoon where a judge read their charges and denied bond, calling them both a flight risk. Both are citizens of Mexico.
Law enforcement officials confirmed all three suspects are illegally in the country.
Estrada-Hernandez served time in a North Carolina prison for felony drug trafficking before being released in 2023.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Thursday that although the suspects are undocumented immigrants, she expects they will all be prosecuted in North Carolina.
“We are obviously operating in kind of a new era to some extent in the way that ICE has been operating historically, though they leave that person in our custody for them to go through the court system for that case to be processed and those individuals be brought to justice if they're given an active sentence in our prison system,” Freeman said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She said the Duran Duran siblings have been placed under an ICE detainer and are being held at the Wake County Detention Center.
If at some point they are released from state custody, they will go into the custody of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, Freeman said.
“We are at the beginning of a process," she said. "Obviously, they've been charged with some fairly serious charges arising out of this incident. And so, we will go through the normal process in court.”
A first court appearance for Estrada-Hernandez was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday.
The Duran Duran siblings are charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of second-degree kidnapping, and they could face about 20 years in prison on each charge if convicted.
Freeman said convicted offenders typically would serve their sentences here before being subject to deportation.
