Safety video of a New Mexico girl apparently being kidnapped from the Zia Park On line casino Resort Racetrack, near the border with Texas, is now being reevaluated by investigators.
A on line casino safety video nonetheless of Erica Martinez shortly earlier than she is bundled right into a automobile by Jonathan Zaragoza, foreground. (Hobbs Police Division)
On Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, police responded to experiences of a potential kidnapping at Zia Park. On September 9, the Hobbs Police Division launched a video supplied by the on line casino.
It appeared to indicate a suspect chasing down a lady within the on line casino parking zone, tackling her, after which forcefully bundling her right into a silver Chrysler 300. The girl was shortly recognized as 35-year-old Erica Martinez from Hobbs. Her suspected kidnapper was Jonathan Zaragoza.
Police requested for the general public’s assist, and the video surveillance and screenshots from the on line casino have been shared on social media.
On Saturday, Sept. 10, officers noticed the silver Chrysler within the Carlsbad space, 70 miles southwest of Hobbs. They situated Martinez and Zaragoza in a close-by property at round 9 pm. Martinez was unhurt.
Hobbs police mentioned in a media launch Saturday that Martinez was being interviewed and that legal costs towards Zaragoza have been pending the completion of their investigation.
However police are actually analyzing whether or not the occasions depicted within the video may need been misconstrued.
Digital camera By no means Lies
Zaragoza has not been charged with kidnapping, in response to court docket information seen by The Hobbs Information-Solar. He was booked into the Eddy County Detention Heart for violating probation on a 2019 conviction for meth trafficking and launched Wednesday.
He additionally violated probation phrases in 2021 on costs of battery on a family member, interference with communications, and property injury to a family member, court docket information present.
In the meantime, Martinez was arrested on an impressive warrant after she failed to seem in court docket on a July 2022 cost of driving with a suspended license. She has since been launched from jail and is due again in court docket on Oct. 13.
Smoking Gun?
However the crux of the case might lie in a discovery made contained in the on line casino through the investigation into the suspected kidnapping. A handbag allegedly misplaced by Martinez contained a number of playing cards in her identify and 226 fentanyl drugs.
Investigators are actually engaged on the speculation Zaragoza and Martinez fled Hobbs in a panic to keep away from investigation and arrest, Carlsbad Police Division Capt. Jesse Rodriguez advised The Information-Solar.
And what appeared to observers to be a terrifying abduction may even have been a frantic try by one legal to guard one other.
Police say the investigation into the incident is ongoing. The video can be viewed on the Hobbs Police Division Fb web page.
