The global road freight community was this morning still trying to make sense of the brutal slaying of a ‘trucking family’ in a case that Californian authorities are describing as “pure evil”.
Until earlier this week there was still hope for a successful ending to Monday’s kidnapping of the four family members – 36-year-old Jasdeep Singh, the owner and operator of a transport company in San Joaquin Valley; his 29-year-old wife, Jasleen Kaur; their 8-month-old daughter, Aroohi Dheri; and Jasdeep’s 29-year-old brother, Amandeep, an employee of Unison Trucking in Merced.
Yesterday, though, Merced County Sheriff, Vern Warnke, was at times overcome with emotion when he announced that a farm worker in Dos Palos, about 50 kilometres south of Merced, had made a horrific discovery in an almond orchard.
Associated Press reports that Warnke “would not discuss the condition of the adults’ remains in the orchard but said it was unclear how the baby died. Warnke said the child had no visible trauma and an autopsy would be conducted.”
A 48-year-old convict and former employee of Unison, Jesus Salgado, has since been arrested and is still being detained in the local county jail after he was discharged from hospital following a failed suicide attempt.
According to AP, Salgado “had worked for the family’s trucking business and had a longstanding feud with them that culminated in an act of ‘pure evil’,” Warnke said.
He called for prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
“The sheriff called it one of the worst crimes he had seen over his 43 years in law enforcement,” said AP.
He also pleaded with Salgado’s accomplice, responsible for kidnapping the deceased from Jasdeep Singh’s business premises, to hand himself over to police.
The fate of Unison and its 13 drivers hang in the balance since the murders.
