‘I really wanted a happy ending.’ Merced leaders react to killing of baby and family

Merced County residents reacted with anger, fear and heartbreak Thursday after the discovery of four kidnapped family members found dead on a rural farm.

The bodies of 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her parents Jasleen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36, and her uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, were found on the farmland near Dos Palos on Merced County’s west side.

The family was taken by gunpoint on Monday from a business they operated just south of Merced, leading to a search for the family until the tragic conclusion Wednesday.

Priya Lakireddy, a Merced resident for about 13 years, said the local Indian community is close and mourning with the surviving family. A vigil and march are planned on three nights of mourning each night at 7 p.m. in downtown Merced.

“I was there yesterday, and it was heartbreaking to see a family suffer,” she said. “The family is suffering, but ultimately the community is suffering.”

Merced has a significant population of professionals of Indian descent, which includes business owners, according to Edwin Kainth, who heads the Merced Hotel and Lodging Association. He said many are left reeling and wondering what police can do to keep them safe.

“The Indian community is still having anger inside,” he said. “But they’re peaceful people.”

He said the tight-knit community has pulled together to care for the mourning family with food and other needs but noted Amandeep Singh left behind a wife and two children.

“They’ve lost their income sources,” he said. “They just bought a new house recently.”

To that end, the community is putting together a fundraising page online, he said.

The Merced community

Merced Councilmember Jesse Ornelas said the community had been closely following the news of the kidnapping and its tragic ending.

“A piece of me was holding out for a happy ending,” he said. “In the back of my mind — this hurts me to say — in this community, we don’t have a lot of happy endings. I really wanted a happy ending.”

A program manager for Youth Leadership Council, Ornelas said young people have been watching and so have his own children.

Then the news came of the bodies being discovered Wednesday evening.

“I was pissed. I was pissed off at that piece of s---,” Ornelas said. “Even my children were aware of the missing family. I knew I was going to have to tell my kids.”

He said he hopes the community, which has been through three difficult years during the pandemic, will find a way to heal following this latest tragedy.

Family of four found

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke confirmed Wednesday the bodies were located in an “extremely remote” area near the intersection of Indiana and Hutchins roads. He said a farmworker made the gruesome discovery and authorities were notified at around 5:30 p.m.

Earlier Wednesday, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office released video footage of the kidnapping that took place Monday morning at the victims’ business.

The video shows an armed masked man who walked onto the business premises. The man then led Jasdeep Singh (the baby’s father) and Amandeep Singh (the baby’s uncle) at gunpoint into Amandeep’s black Dodge Ram pickup truck.

Authorities have identified 48-year-old Jesus Manuel Salgado as the suspect. He was taken into custody but not before he attempted suicide. He was under medical care, and Warnke said has begun to speak with investigators.

The community of Indian descent

A long-time community leader in Livingston, Gurpal Samra said the Merced family was not well-known in the town north of Merced, but some of their relatives owned a gas station there more than a decade ago.

The family attended a small Sikh temple in Merced, according to a family friend.

Nonetheless, the reverberations of the crime were felt in a Livingston community that is about 17% Punjabi and largely Sikh.

“These are names that we’re used to pronouncing and saying,” he said of the family. “You can relate because they come from a similar background and ethnic makeup.”

Many residents were scratching their heads over the motive to kill an entire family. Killing a person of any age or ethnicity is wrong, of course, but the crime seemed particularly heinous, he said.

“Think about the cruelty of a person who did this to an 8-month-old,” he said.

The death penalty

During a news conference Wednesday, Warnke said he hopes the Merced County District Attorney’s Office will seek the death penalty in the case.

“There’s no words right now to describe the anger I feel and the senselessness of this incident,” he said. “I said it earlier, there is a special place in hell for this guy.”

The DA’s office does not expect to get the case any earlier than next week, according to a spokesperson.

“The case is still under investigation by the sheriff’s department,” a statement from the DA said. “They intend to bring it to us next week and we will evaluate it as we do any cases.”

Outgoing District Attorney Kimberly Lewis lost a re-election campaign and will be replaced in January by Supervising Deputy District Attorney Nicole Silveira.

“At this time, I do not have enough information to comment on whether or not we will seek the death penalty,” Silveira said in an email. “Given the nature of the case, it will be discussed once we have more information about the crimes.”

The decision to seek capital punishment is likely moot, at least in the short term.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, in March 2019, gave a moratorium to the more than 700 inmates on California’s death row.

Newsom, also in 2019, withdrew the lethal injection regulations that death penalty opponents already challenged in courts and moved to close the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.

In 2016, voters in California passed a measure to speed up the death penalty. California hasn’t executed anyone since 2006, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor.