Disturbing violent events

Chico Police Department detectives are investigating the alleged kidnapping of a 30-year-old unidentified Chico woman who jumped out of her captors’ vehicle and ran screaming to deputies from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office in an unmarked sedan nearby in the Nord Avenue Safeway parking lot.

Shortly after the incident, on Saturday afternoon (June 4), the deputies arrested the car’s occupants, Julie Ann Gates, 33, of Chico, and Gwen Ellen Elizondo, 49, of Orland, according to a CPD press release. The victim says the women, along with an unidentified man, kidnapped her from her Warner Street apartment. She claims to have been beaten, assaulted by a stun gun and dragged to the car. In addition to kidnapping, Gates also faces charges of possession of methamphetamine and smoking devices.

Meanwhile, BCSO investigators are looking into an alleged home-invasion robbery that took place in the early morning hours last Thursday (June 2) on the 3100 block of Rodeo Avenue. According to the victims, a mother and juvenile son, the pair were asleep when an unknown number of masked suspects entered their house through an unlocked door. They were tied up at gunpoint before the suspects ransacked the house. Anyone with info about the case is urged to contact the BCSO at 538-7321 or 538-7671.