Kidnapping suspect awaiting extradition to Yuma

March 20, 2008 - 9:42 AM

LOANED PHOTO
RUDOLFO NEGRETE JR.

A 38-year-old man awaiting extradition to Yuma on charges of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl may face additional charges, the Yuma County Sheriff's Office said.

Sheriff's detectives were bringing the unidentified girl back to Yuma Wednesday afternoon to be reunited with her family, while Rudolfo Negrete Jr. was being held in the San Diego County Jail on an arrest warrant issued by the Yuma County Sheriff's Office.

Negrete faces charges of kidnapping, said sheriff's spokesman Eben Bratcher, but additional charges are a "definite possibility."

Negrete is believed to have been acquainted with the girl's family, Bratcher said.

Her disappearance was reported to the sheriff's office on March 10. Deputies received information from her friends indicating she had left voluntarily with a man for the San Diego area, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

The U.S. Marshals Service located and arrested Negrete in San Diego on Tuesday and later found the girl at a home in that city, the sheriff's office said.

Bratcher said Wednesday the girl was in good physical condition.