Federal Way man indicted for kidnapping Auburn woman

A Federal Way man was indicted in federal court for kidnapping an Auburn woman at gunpoint and then taking her to Mexico.

On Nov. 26, the U.S. Department of Justice Western District of Washington announced that Daniel Lopez, 24, would appear in federal court following his Nov. 6 kidnapping indictment. Lopez was arrested in Texas on Oct. 19 at a hotel and was then placed in state custody on charges filed in King County Superior Court.

Lopez pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping with a firearm enhancement and unlawful possession of a firearm and was held on a $1 million bond on Nov. 7. Despite originally being charged in King County Superior Court, on Nov. 25, his charges were vacated in King County because he had been indicted federally.

The justice department reports that Lopez was indicted for the Oct. 13 kidnapping of an Auburn woman —identified as Jackelin Perez — following her gunpoint abduction from her home. On Oct. 23, Perez was found by immigration authorities in southern Mexico and was transported to Guatemala, where she has family members, according to the justice department.

Perez’s husband reported her missing on Oct. 14 after arriving home and finding her belongings at their apartment, according to the department. Following the report, two witnesses reported seeing Perez leaving with two men, one of whom was carrying a firearm, and that man was subsequently identified as Lopez, the department said. Lopez was initially identified based on surveillance video from across the street showing vehicles in the apartment complex parking lot, through which officers could obtain license plate information that determined Lopez was a registered owner of one of the vehicles. King County court documents said further that the driver’s license photo of Lopez showed that he matched the description of the person the witnesses described they saw with Perez before she disappeared.

Details of probable cause

Perez’s husband said he had received a call from a 17-year-old who went by “Gordo,” whom he had met while working at a construction site a few months prior. The husband said Gordo called him to let him know he could repay his borrowed money, according to court documents.

The husband told Gordo that he was not home, but he could drop off the money at his home and deliver it to his wife, Perez. The husband said that when he got home, he found his front door ajar. Perez was not home, her clothes she wore earlier that day were on the bed, and various identification cards were on a dresser, according to documents.

The husband then began calling his wife and various family members to see if they knew where she was, but he could not get a hold of her, and no one knew of her whereabouts. According to the documents, when the husband was interviewed, he contradicted himself multiple times, and it seemed as if he was involved in the sale of illegal drugs.

The documents said witnesses then reported seeing two men leaving the apartment complex with Perez, who was wearing a pink top, a black towel around her head, had no shoes on, and who seemed to have unfinished makeup on. The witnesses said they saw her with a man who was about 5 feet 4 inches tall, Hispanic, with some facial hair and a tattoo under his left eye.

The documents said detectives were able to identify Lopez as one of the suspects because he matched the description of someone the husband had seen with Gordo before, photos on his Facebook matched the description, and a cellphone associated with him and that he possessed when arrested had pinged towers at the location where the alleged kidnapping took place, . The documents said Lopez had prior convictions of robbery and two convictions of unlawful possession of a firearm.

The justice department reports that law enforcement is working to determine any other conspirators in the kidnapping scheme.