KIDNAPPERS PUT GIRL IN ‘DUNGEON’

PFMLIT ABDUCTION KIDNAPPING, ABDUCTION KIDNAPPING, DEATH PENALTY FOR SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, General

A kidnapped Bronx girl was forced to live on almost nothing but water and cookied for nearly a year while being held in a boiler room and basement bedrom in her apartment building.  The girl, who was 12 when she disappeared, said she was eventually shipped off to Puerto Rico.  After one escape attempt failed, the kidnappers, Pedro Garcia who was the building's superintendent, and his wife, Betzayda Melendez, told her, We're sending you to Puerto Rico because you're getting us into trouble.  One the day of her departure at Kennedy Airport she pleaded with a ticket agent, security guards and several flight attendants for help, but to no avail.  She said, I was screaming that they were not my parents.  Garcia and Melendez told them that she was crazy and retarded.  She said, Everyone was staring at us, but no one helped.  The girl, who is now 15, was reunited with her mother after a relative of the defendants went to Puerto Rican police.

(New York)