STAFFORD, Texas – A man and four others have been arrested after police said they kidnapped his co-worker and demanded a ransom for her release Wednesday morning.
Officers with the Stafford Police Department responded to reports of a kidnapping in the 1700 block of Pecan Lane after they received a phone call with a woman screaming in the background and shots being fired. Shortly after the first call, a second call was received from a witness stating he saw his neighbor’s wife being kidnapped.
When officers arrived at the home, they spoke with the victim’s husband, who said his wife was leaving for work when he heard her screaming outside. He said he went to check on her and saw her scuffling with three men. When he went to help, he said one of the men pointed a gun at him.
The wife was then thrown into her vehicle and taken by the suspects.
A short time later, the husband said he received a phone call from the suspects demanding a ransom while making threats to his wife.
Officers said they started searching for the victim’s stolen vehicle, which they located in the Sugar Land area traveling with an unknown pickup truck. Officers looked up the owner of the truck and found out it belonged to one of the victim’s co-workers.
Officers then went to the victim’s job and confirmed she worked with the owner of the pickup truck and got his home address in East Beach, Galveston.
Galveston PD went to the home and located the pickup truck, which contained the victim, a suspect in the driver’s seat, a suspect standing behind the vehicle and another suspect on the street.
The officer conducted a takedown and rescued the victim, who they found lying in the back of the vehicle with her hands tied behind her back and her eyes and mouth covered.
Five suspects were arrested-- four men and one woman.
Jose Gonzalez Hernandez (the victim’s co-worker), Claudia Elizabeth Rojas Rivas (Hernandez’s wife), Kelvin Gustavo Cruz, Pablo Mendez Cruz, and Williams Noe Redondo Ramirez were all booked into the Galveston County Jail awaiting transferral to the Fort Bend County Jail.