Custody Battle Brews Over 13-Year-Old Stabbed 30 Times
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Our CBS13 crew was involved in a heated confrontation on Thursday as the father of a 13-year-old girl who was stabbed 30 times says someone kidnapped her from the hospital.
A bitter custody battle between a father and mother of a 13-year-old girl results in resistance.
The father told CBS13 that his daughter was supposed to be released from the hospital on Thursday into his care, but he says in the process her mother kidnapped her, and for several hours the girl was gone from the hospital.
Martin Perez says his daughter has already been through enough after being raped and stabbed 30 times earlier this week.
Perez says that a social worker told him and the girl's mother that their daughter would be going home with him Thursday night.
The teen was in her mother's home, along with her 18-month-old brother, when the attack happened after 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
Perez says the mother and grandmother decided to take matters into their own hands.
"She deliberately disobeyed an order knowing my daughter was being released to me, but yet she took it upon herself to just take my daughter out," says Perez.
UC Davis Medical Center Police say the girl was taken from the hospital, but that it wasn't kidnapping. They say it was a custody issue, even though doctors hadn't officially released the girl.
Police say they found the girl some time later away from the hospital. But, she is back in the hospital, and is said to be there overnight.
Since the stabbing, Perez says he's fighting to gain full custody of his daughter.
"I need to protect my daughters, so every night they are with me," says Perez.
Thursday, CBS13 learned of another bizarre twist in this case. Vacaville Police are looking to see if a double homicide that happened last month is somehow connected to Sunday's stabbing.
The daughter may be released from the hospital on Friday, but as for the 18-month-old boy, he is still recovering and is expected to be okay.
