Police: Modesto mom was granted restraining order just days before alleged kidnapping
A Modesto mother of two was granted a temporary restraining order that kept her estranged husband from seeing her children just days before he allegedly kidnapped her at gunpoint, authorities said Friday.
Susana Torres, who already had a restraining order out against Javier Chavez, got the new order that granted her full custody of the 2-year-old son the two had together, Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear said. Torres also has an 8-year-old from a different relationship.
Sgt. Tom Letras of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department said the order’s emergency basis meant it was temporary, and it was only effective April 8 through Monday. But Torres and her sons were kidnapped outside a store around 5:30 p.m. Sunday, so she didn’t get the chance to appear before a judge and possibly be granted a more permanent injunction when the order ended.
Torres’ 8-year-old son said during an interview Thursday night that Chavez was threatening his mom with a gun while they were all in the car together and he knew she didn’t want to be there because he saw her crying.
“I was scared,” the boy said.
Before he allegedly fled to Mexico, Chavez, 41, arrived at his parents’ house around 10 p.m. the night of the alleged kidnapping. He dropped off the two children and told his parents he and Torres were getting back together, a narrative both Letras and Torres’ family say is untrue.
“She was not required to take the children over there and very likely wouldn’t have,” Letras said.
Chavez’s parents regularly watched the children, but Torres, 32, had informed them that she would not be dropping the children off at their house that weekend because of the changed custody, Torres’ cousin Yazmin Cruz said Thursday
Chavez had a Modesto Police Department warrant out for his arrest and had not been formally notified of the restraining order by the time of the kidnapping because his whereabouts were unknown, Letras said. However, he believes it’s possible Chavez’s parents told him that they would not be getting the children.
No updates on whereabouts of Torres
Detectives had not announced any updates in the case as of Friday but were still trying to get more information about what happened the night of the kidnapping and the whereabouts of Chavez and Torres.
Torres’ loved ones gathered at her aunt and uncle’s house Thursday night in south Modesto to be together in the hours after the sheriff’s department announced she had gone missing.
Cruz said Torres was with them at the same house eating carne asada Sunday, just before she left to go to the store where the kidnapping happened.
The family is close, and Cruz said Torres planned to move down the street just this week to be nearer to them. Cruz also talked about how Torres loves to dance and how she always was smiling whenever she wasn’t with Chavez.
“She’s a happy person, she’s a hardworking mom,” Cruz said. “She cared a lot for us.”
Cruz said she planned to file for temporary custody of the boys while they waited for news about Torres.
“We hope she’s alive but it’s also hard to hope because it’s already been so many days,” Cruz said.
Court documents: Torres said she was abused
Court and police records obtained by The Bee show a history of domestic abuse between Torres and Chavez starting at least two years before the apparent kidnapping.
Torres filed for a restraining order against Chavez in March 2019, about two months after the birth of their child.
Torres detailed Chavez’s obsessive behavior in her petition, saying he kept her from seeing her family, threatened to take away their baby and tracked her location on her phone.
She said Chavez dealt with an alcoholic father during his childhood and would always accuse her of drinking when she went to see her family, which she said wasn’t the case.
She also wrote that she was willing to still let Chavez see the baby if granted custody but wanted to be able to have her family in her life and for the children to grow up around them.
“He has threatened to take my and my family happiness away if I take the baby away,” Torres wrote.
Chavez also demanded Torres have her phone on at all times so he could track her location and made her send pictures of where she went with her family, she said.
“I can’t even do my makeup or get ready if he is not with me,” Torres wrote. “He is so wrong.”
A temporary restraining order was denied two days after the initial filing.
In February, Torres was granted a temporary restraining order against Chavez effective through June 21, an employee with the Family Law Clerk’s Office confirmed.
Cruz said the situation escalated around the time the February order was put in place, which was around when Torres told her family Chavez allegedly raped her. Torres started opening up more to her family about the abuse after that incident.
“We just knew he was this person who was very jealous and he wanted to have control in the relationship and didn’t like her to come over here,” Cruz said.
Torres called MPD on March 27 after Chavez found her while visiting a friend and forced her into his car, said Bear, the MPD spokesperson. Torres was able to escape after they drove a few blocks and call police.
Chavez was gone by the time officers arrived, and MPD issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of violating the restraining order, domestic battery and kidnapping. Bear said the temporary restraining order was issued in relation to the March 27 incident.
This story was originally published April 17, 2021 at 4:52 AM.
