Public Safety

Mexican Authorities Free Kidnap Victim With Help From FBI

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published November 9, 2009 at 4:45 PM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

A 21 year old woman who was kidnapped in Tijuana has been freed by Mexican law enforcement authorities working in collaboration with the FBI.

The 21-year-old psychology student was kidnapped last Wednesday just a few hundred yards from the Sentri lanes at the San Ysidro border crossing. Authorities say she was headed to San Diego when her captors dragged her out of her car. A few hours later, they called the woman's family to demand a $200,000 ransom.

Mexican authorities say the family contacted the FBI, though the kidnappers threatened to kill them if they did.

Become a KPBS sponsor

One of the woman's alleged captors, Erick Pulido, was arrested Saturday morning in San Diego. Pulido apparently confessed to kidnapping the woman. He helped lead Mexican authorities to the safe house in Tijuana where two of his alleged accomplices had the woman handcuffed in the master bedroom closet.

Tags

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

See stories by Amy Isackson