Staged kidnapping leads to two arrests

An ex-married couple appeared in East Fork Justice Court on Valentine's Day after they allegedly staged a kidnapping to draw her current boyfriend out of his house.

Lea Heredia-Cortez, 38, and Mauricio Lopez, 49, are both in custody after Douglas County deputies received a 911 call of a kidnapping on Rubio Way late Saturday night.

According to the Sheriff's Office, deputies were told by the resident that his girlfriend had been taken at gunpoint by a man, who fled in a maroon minivan.

At 11:30 p.m., about two hours after the first report, deputies located the minivan in the parking lot of the Topsy Way Walmart, with both Heredia-Cortez and Lopez. The weapon that Lopez allegedly brandished at the scene was confiscated and he was arrested.

Sgt. Jim Halsey of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said that during the investigation, deputies learned there was no kidnapping.

Heredia-Cortez and Lopez are divorced, but involved in a relationship. The kidnapping was staged to lure the Rubio Way resident out of the house where Lopez and two other men could batter him.

When the plan to lure the soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend failed, they staged the kidnapping. Rather than come out, the resident called the sheriff's office.

Heredia-Cortez and Lopez are facing felony assault with a deadly weapon charges and are being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Douglas investigators are seeking the two men who accompanied Lopez to the Rubio Way address.

Carson City residents Habraham Heredia-Cortez and Roberto Biyagrana are being sought in connection with the incident.