Suspects sought in attempted kidnapping in Merced County

Merced sheriff’s investigators are asking for the public’s help identifying three people who they say attempted to kidnap a woman earlier this week at a fueling station in Santa Nella.

Detective-Sgt. Chuck Hale said there were few details deputies could release Wednesday, citing a need to protect the investigation.

The woman, described only as a adult, stopped for gasoline around 6:40 p.m. Monday at the Chevron on Gonzaga Road in Santa Nella. When she came out of the store, deputies said, she spotted a man insider her vehicle going through her things. As she confronted him, a second “larger” man approached her from behind and lifted her off the ground, deputies said in news release.

The man tried to force her into a pickup truck. She struggled and managed to get away. She raced back to her car and sped away. She was not injured, Hale told the Sun-Star on Wednesday.

Investigators believe three men were involved in the attempted kidnapping.

She described the men as Hispanic adults driving a White or Silver Chevrolet Silverado with Arizona license plates. The victim believes she saw the letters “DFK, JFK or KFJ” in a 3 letter sequence, deputies said.

She described them as having black braided hair and wearing white shirts with blue jeans. She believed the male that picked her up was large and more than 6 feet tall and the other had a skeleton tattoo with horns on his neck.

Detectives declined to release any more details Wednesday, including to say whether any of the incident may have been captured by area surveillance cameras.

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Suspects sought in attempted kidnapping in Merced County."