Recovered; Jul 05, 2004

Police in Lafayette, Indiana say the 8 year old girl had been taken by her mom's ex-boyfriend. Police worried for the girl's safety, but those fears have been allayed with the discovery of little Jacquelin alive.

The man who authorities accused of abducting an 8-year-old girl from her baby-sitter's house and taking her to Mexico probably will not be prosecuted, attorneys said. Authorities said Carlos Ramirez Gonzales, 27, kidnapped Jacquelin Ortiz on July 4. The girl's disappearance triggered an AMBER Alert and she was found two days later just across the border from Laredo, Texas. Police say Gonzales is still in Mexico. Mexican authorities released him after finding that he had committed no crime in Mexico. Tippecanoe County deputy prosecutor Laura Zeman said authorities have been told they must provide Gonzales' exact location, plus about $10,000 in fees in order for Mexican police to arrest him. Gonzales' father, who authorities said provided his son with a car during the abduction, was sentenced Monday, February 14th, 2005 in a Tippecanoe County court to more than a year in jail and likely will be deported to Mexico within a few months, Judge Thomas Busch ruled. Ramiro Ramirez Perez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit confinement and false informing. After two months of struggles with federal officials, the girl and her mother returned to Lafayette. Since both were illegal immigrants, they had to be given paroles from the U.S. government.