A woman who believes that her brother's ex-girlfriend was the person behind his death is being accused of kidnapping her as a way of avenging his death.
Mercedes Salazar, 32, was arrested on Sunday after a 25-year-old woman was found inside a home on the West Side of San Antonio, Texas on Sept. 9, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
The kidnapped victim had been held captive at a home on the 11000 block of Bluff Canyon near Lackland Air Force Base for three days by Salazar and three other suspects: James Cerda, Teanna San Nicolas and Tristan Smith, the Daily Mail reported.
Salazar and Cerda left San Nicolas to keep an eye on the victim as they went out to do some errands. The woman managed to convince San Nicolas to untie her so she could use the bathroom.
San Nicholas eventually dosed off, and the woman used the opportunity to contact her mother. As the police arrived, the woman screamed for help.
Police were forced to break into the home after San Nicholas threatened the woman with a knife and scissors, said James Keith, the spokesperson for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, according to the New York Daily News.
The woman, who was not identified in public, told investigators that her abductors tied her to a chair, forced her to take heroin and other substances, cut her hair and drew blood from her as part of a bizarre ceremony after she was rescued.
The woman had once dated Salazar's brother Angel, who was killed in San Antonio in August. "We understand that people can be emotional whenever they lose somebody. But whenever you take it to this sort of level, not only is it criminal but it's also sick and scary," Keith said, according to the Daily Star.
