Bend boy’s family seeks help finding Fair kidnapper

A trip to the fair almost turned into every mother’s worst nightmare when a 5-year-old boy was almost kidnapped just after midnight Saturday night from the Deschutes County Fair.

Kassandra Vazquez told NewsChannel 21 Tuesday evening she was getting ready to leave the fair with a group of family members when her son, Joshua, ran ahead.

“This person doesn’t understand the damage he did to my son, the damage he did to me,” Vazquez said.

She had called for her brother-in-law, who was at the front of the group, to grab him, but Joshua ran ahead, out the gates and into the parking lot.

“I look in front of me, I didn’t see him. I looked into the left and I didn’t see him. That’s when I told my sister-in-law I couldn’t find him,” said the boy’s uncle, Moses Arellano. ” Everyone came out and they screamed out Joshua!’ — and that’s when we saw that he got pulled,”

Arellano said Joshua was only a few steps ahead of them, but because it was so dark, they could hardly see a thing.

“He said somebody was touching him and he didn’t like it,” Arellano said.

Vazquez said Joshua then kicked the kidnapper in the privates and ran.

“He told me, ‘Mommy ,I kicked the guy. The guy was too fast, and that’s when he tried to grab me, but then I ran away. When I ran away, that’s when the guy in the white shirt saved me,’ meaning my brother-in-law,” Vazquez said.

Back with Joshua in their care, the family went to security and called police. They said they were surprised the security guard had not stopped Joshua from running out of the fair alone.

Vazquez said the security guard didn’t even notice when Joshua ran by.

She said she feels like her son was targeted and is shocked the kidnapper tried to abduct her son in front of a crowd.

“This guy is a monster, to do this to a kid that’s in eyesight of his family,” Vazquez said. ” He’s traumatized, he’s scared, he’s blaming himself — and he shouldn’t.”

She said her son has shut down since the incident and blames himself for running off. The family is frustrated that the kidnapper is still at large. Vazquez said they won’t feel safe until he is behind bars.

The Redmond Police Department said the kidnapper is a 20-year-old white man who was wearing black clothes and a black hat. Vazquez said that he may have been in his 30s or 40s. She said there were a few other families in the area when Joshua was grabbed and asked them to contact Redmond police at 541-504-3400.