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Kidnap suspect turns self in
By BEN MONTGOMERY
Published March 8, 2007
BRADENTON - Twelve days after he stole a boy from a bus stop, tied him up in the woods and then ran from the law to Mexico, authorities say, Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno walked across the Texas border to face his fate. Two Manatee County sheriff's detectives and FBI agent Leo Martinez met him on the bridge Wednesday morning. The agent, who choreographed Beltran-Moreno's surrender through hours of phone calls in the past week, took the 22-year-old farmworker called "Nacho" into custody. Authorities had tracked him to the Mexican state of Sinaloa, to his family, to a telephone. Martinez reached him at 11:16 a.m. Feb. 27 and slowly, patiently convinced him to do the right thing. "He said, 'I've made up my mind' to return," sheriff's Maj. Connie Shingledecker said. "It sounds like he almost has a conscience." The surrender capped a multiagency investigation - one that involved good police work, a smart victim and strokes of luck - after the Feb. 23 abduction of 13-year-old Clay Moore. It appears to have been planned by a broke and desperate illegal immigrant with two young daughters, authorities said. "I can't believe all this came together like it did," Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said. "I kept expecting it to fall apart." Court records filed Wednesday shed new light on the investigation and suggest Beltran-Moreno may have had an accomplice. Authorities said they're investigating that, but wouldn't comment further. Moore was riding a skateboard that morning near his bus stop on Old Tampa Road in Parrish when a man in a red pickup ordered him in. The man pulled a gun. The man dragged Moore into his truck. He drove to State Road 64, then to Kebler Farms, where he turned onto a dirt road and stopped at a patch of woods. The man blindfolded and gagged the boy before tying him to a tree. Then the man was gone. Moore eventually wiggled free of his bindings and escaped. Investigators questioned Moore and got enough for a composite sketch, and the search was on. By Feb. 26, Special Agent Martinez had gotten a phone number for Beltran-Moreno in Mexico and called. No answer. He tried again the following morning. Beltran-Moreno answered.
[Last modified March 8, 2007, 01:21:58]
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