An illegal Mexican immigrant, who was He was previously deported A US man has been arrested five times after trying to kidnap a teenage girl from Alabama in a store parking lot around 5:40pm on New Year's Eve, according to officials.
Yordi Centeno Melchor, 31 years old, is charged with Attempted second-degree kidnapping He is being held on $100,000 bail in connection with the incident.
“It appears that when he got to the parking lot, he forced the girl who was trying to move the buggy,” Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin told Fox News Digital. “She was in that area or near his car. But he convinced her to come to the car. She is a young girl, 17 years old.”
Another man nearby apparently saw the girl “in distress” and confronted Melchor, at which point he allegedly fled the scene, and the Sheriff's Office issued a BOLO for the area.
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Yordi Centeno Melchor, 31, is charged with attempted second-degree kidnapping and is being held on $100,000 bail in connection with the incident. (Elmore County Sheriff's Office)
Sheriff's office Franklin said he later obtained a search warrant for the suspect's phone, and in his “notes” section he detailed “what he was going to do.”
The sheriff explained: “He was going to give her $200, and I won’t go into the intricacies of that, but it is clear that he was trying to convince her to get into the car.”
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Officials aren't sure exactly when Melchor wrote the note, but the victim told authorities he showed it to her — perhaps as a way to communicate to the girl that he would offer her money.
The alleged kidnapping attempt occurred in a Holtsville parking lot. (google maps)
An employee at the store in Holtsville, where the incident occurred, shared video footage from the parking lot with authorities, who were able to find the suspect's license plate number.
Days later, in a county 30 miles north of Elmore, officials stopped a vehicle matching the one at the crime scene and ran plates that matched the suspect vehicle. The driver, Melchor, also matches the description of the suspect.
“We will cooperate with ICE. We will always cooperate with ICE.”
Officials were later able to positively identify the suspect and his previous deportations. They are still working to determine why Melkor was deported five separate times.
Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin said his office will cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Facebook)
After his arrest, a local woman saw Melchor's photo and reported seeing a similar-looking man in the girl's bathroom at Walmart.
Melkor has ties to San Antonio, Texas, and Shelby County, Alabama. Al-Sharif said he was known to drive between these two areas to visit his family.
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The suspect may face additional charges if authorities are able to identify any other victims.
Franklin described his officers as “a wonderful group of men” who “all suffer the same adversity to keep Elmore County safe.” He added that Elmore County is not a particularly large or small county, but officials “don't deal with a lot” of crimes of this type in the area.
