The Fresno County Sheriff's Department needs your help. They want more evidence in the case against a man accused of kidnapping and raping a 10-year old girl.
23-year old Kalvin Cardenas is in jail facing a host of charges. Investigators have found his truck and the child’s bicycle, but want you to keep an eye out for her purple High Sierra backpack, white bike helmet and a red, white and blue blanket that was in Carednas' truck at the time he allegedly committed the rape.
“It would be nice to have them, but it's not going to make or break the case at this point,” said Fresno Co. Sheriff Margaret Mims.
Sheriff Margaret Mims says Cardenas was arrested in May for trying to abduct a girl in Dinuba who was also on her way to school. Kidnapping is something he’s apparently tried a lot because Mims says another local police department just informed her Thursday that they have an open case matching Cardenas' method of operation.
“As the word spreads about this I’m sure other agencies are really going through their cold cases to see if there's anything similar,” said Sheriff Mims.
Mims is proud of her team for catching Cardenas saying criminals like him tend to become more and more violent.
“My concern is had he not been apprehended for this incident he might have hurt his next victim much, much worse,” said Sheriff Mims.
We don't know this tough little girl's name and we haven't seen her face, but her story has moved us.
“This whole community has kind of adopted this little girl into their loving arms,” said Sheriff Mims.
People want to give but don't know how, so Mims is creating a fund. It’s not just for this case, but for all children who may be victimized by violence in the future.
“We will use the funding for whatever the family needs the most or maybe even for what the child wants to do. For instance a trip to Disneyland and that kind of thing,” said Sheriff Mims.
