For some reason, we don't know why, Richmond police did not consider this to be a high profile case. Therefore, it got very little media attention until Wednesday when Raul Ochoa, of Richmond, California, pleaded guilty, admitting to this horrible crime.
This house in Richmond was where the 52-year-old sexually abused and kept one his relatives away from the rest of the world for 14 years.
The abuse started when the young girl came to live with them. She was only 13-years-old.
"In that home she was basically, through the use of emotional and psychological pressure as well as sexual abuse, forced to participate in horrific acts for an extended period of time," said Deputy District Attorney Ryan Wagner.
She was not allowed to go to school. When she was old enough, Ochoa taught her how to do landscaping work; something they would do together.
Ina Mason is a neighbor who knew something was not right.
"She didn't go to school so she, I mean, they were always together, she never had any friends," Mason said.
Investigators say Ochoa built a shed in the back yard where most of the sexual abuse occurred. It has since been torn down.
There were other people in the house, including Ochoa's wife and children. The DA's office says they too lived in fear of him. But in August of 2012, at the age of 27, she told others she wanted to escape.
"On the last day she said, or she indicated that she was going to use the restroom and had a relative waiting down the street," Wagner said. "And at the time when she went to the restroom she went down the street to a vehicle that was waiting and was able to get to the Richmond Police Department."
On Wednesday, Ochoa pleaded guilty to one count of forced lewd acts on a child and two counts of forcible rape. As part of that deal, he will receive 22 years in state prison.
"I think it's appalling," Mason said. "You are supposed to be a Christian but this is what you are doing to your child or whoever it is, even if it is not your child. I mean, you are doing this to a person? No one has the right to do this to a person."
Ochoa will be formally charged on Feb. 11. The DA's office would not say where the young woman now lives.
This story was first reported by KGO-TV, KTRK-TV's sister station in San Francisco.
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