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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Three Men Arrested In Kidnapping Of Boy Trio Had Demanded Ransom; 14-Year-Old Found Unharmed

Three men were being held in what police described as the abduction of a 14-year-old boy for ransom.

The boy was found unharmed Saturday afternoon in a motor home at Security Mini Storage in Pasco, 15 hours after he was seized at an intersection in Kennewick, police said.

Booked into the Benton County Jail for investigation of first-degree kidnapping were Jose Martinez Valencia, 22, of Kennewick, Jose “David” M. Ayala, 38, of Pasco, and Jose M. Jimenez, 35, who has no known address.

Investigators refused to discuss the boy’s relationship to the men in custody except to say that one was known to him and was walking on the street with him when he was abducted.

Police gave the following account: A second man approached the boy and the man, and the three got into a car. Twenty minutes later, the boy’s family began getting calls demanding an amount of money that police refused to disclose.

After the calls were traced to a telephone at a gasoline station, an officer was sent to the area and arrested Valencia and Ayala as they approached the pay phone, police spokesman Mike Blatman said.

Valencia and Ayala, in turn, told investigators where to find Jimenez and the boy, Blatman said.