CPD assists in search for kidnapper

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Officers from the Cloverdale Police Department were called Tuesday afternoon to assist the FBI and the Indiana State Police in the search for a reported kidnapping suspect believed to be fleeing from Delaware.

Police Chief Charlie Hallam said his department was called at around 1 p.m. to monitor the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 for a cream colored Toyota Camry with Pennsylvania license plates.

Hallam and his officers pulled over one vehicle at the Cloverdale exit but discovered it was not the one they were looking for. At the same time, officers with the Indiana State Police notified Cloverdale that they had apprehended the suspect vehicle at the Brazil exit of the interstate.

In a report issued Wednesday by the state police, the kidnapping suspect was identified as 39-year-old Ruben Millan Santana of Newark, Del. In the car with Santana were his five children and an adult female, who law enforcement in Delaware believed to be kidnapped.

"The investigation has revealed the 27-year-old mother and her children were in the vehicle voluntarily, and were not abducted," the police report said.

Santana was in fact arrested but not on kidnapping charges. He was arrested and booked into the Clay County Jail for having an expired driver's license along with seatbelt and child restraint violations.

He will be extradited to Pennsylvania to face charges there.

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