Teen charged with kidnapping brother. It was the 2nd time someone tried taking the Pasco boy

When Andres Gordillo arrived at his mom’s Pasco home Saturday night it was the first time the 16-year-old had been back for months.

Less than five hours later, the teen took his 6-year-old brother, Mateo, sending police on a daylong three-state search for the pair that ended in Nampa, Idaho.

Court documents show the teen may have been acting for his father, who had already tried to kidnap the child once before.

Franklin County prosecutors charged Andres Gordillo on Tuesday in Benton Franklin Juvenile Court with second-degree kidnapping.

Judge David Petersen ordered $10,000 bail for the teen. He is fighting extradition to be brought back to the Tri-Cities from Idaho, said Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant said. The process could take up to two months.

His mother told police she believes the kidnapping is tied to her ex-husband, Manuel Gomez Gordillo.

She said she escaped their abusive relationship after 18 years of marriage. When she left him, two of her children stayed with him in Ontario, Ore., about 38 miles away from Nampa.

She brought three other sons, including Mateo, with her to the Tri-Cities, but Gomez Gordillo wasn’t happy with the arrangement.

He tried to kidnap Mateo in October 2019, said police. Gomez Gordillo is still wanted for assault and harassment after allegedly pepper spraying his son, Andres, during that attempt.

Andres stayed living with his mother, but he left in November 2020 after he started using marijuana, according to court documents. Then this month he ended up in Umatilla, Ore.

“(His mother) said he kept refusing to come back home and was telling her he was staying with friends and planned on eventually moving back to Mexico,” Pasco Officer Travis Park wrote in the documents.

One of her other sons who had stayed with his father was recently spotted in Hermiston in his dad’s car.

Kidnapping

Three months after Andres had left home, he showed up at his mother’s house at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, asking to stay the night. He said he gotten a ride there from a friend.

When everyone started going to bed, her other son believed Andres was in the bathroom.

“After a while, he said he checked for him and saw the bathroom was open with the light on and Mateo’s room was open and he was gone,” Park wrote.

The brother contacted Andres on Snapchat to get him to bring Mateo back home.

When he asked why the teen took his brother, Andres replied, “I didn’t have another choice,” and “Tell mom it don’t (really) matter at this point.”

Andres also said he didn’t plan to take Mateo, but that he couldn’t bring him back.

“Just tell mom to stop before she makes things worse (for her),” Andres Gordillo said in one of his final messages. “I don’t want any of this but I have no other choice.”

Over the course of the day, Pasco police along with Oregon State Police, sheriff’s deputies from Jerome, Malheur and Umatilla counties, officers from the Nampa and Hermiston police departments and agents from the FBI tracked Andres to Idaho.

He was arrested late Sunday evening, and Mateo was found safe.

This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.