STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Friends and family are throwing a fundraiser today for a Wood River Valley man who was kidnapped, robbed and thrown off a cliff while on a two-week vacation visiting his mother’s grave in Peru.
Fredy Inca Cisneros was in critical condition—reportedly nearly dead—when police found him. He is in a Peruvian hospital with a severed spinal cord, three broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Friends and family are trying to raise $120,000 to bring him back to the United States via an airline ambulance where they hope to get him the surgeries and rehabilitation that he needs.
Friends are preparing a feast from 7 a.m. to about noon today—Saturday, Jan. 27-- at 316 Glendale Road in Bellevue. Donations offered at the event will help pay for Cisneros’s trip back to the Wood River Valley. For more information, call his sister Katia Inca Cisneros at 208-309-0575 or his wife Kari Mendez at 208-948-7929.
Donations may also be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/local-bellevue-resident-kidnaped-and-left-for-dead?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=next-door
Herbert Romero, who advocates for Wood River Valley residents though Neighbors Helping Neighbors, said he has contacted the Peruvian Consulate to see what help they might offer but has not heard back yet.
Cisneros and his 20-year-old son Guillermo were on the last week of a two-week vacation visiting family in Peru when Fredy went to visit his mother’s grave. Following that, he went to the city of Huancayo to say goodbye to his sister Rocio, according to his sister Katia Inca Cisneros.
He had ducked into a store to purchase items for a new store he and his wife recently opened in Bellevue. He was leaving the store when two people jumped him, kidnapped him and shoved him into a taxi. The two beat him, removed his clothes and shoes and confiscated his personal items, including his phone, credit card, ID and money.
They then threw him into a 23-foot ravine.
His sister Rocio, who was waiting for him to come home along with his son Guillermo, finally found him at the hospital.
Cisneros came to the United States on June 1, 2007, seeking a better life. Passionate about soccer, he was a soccer coach for the Lions Academy for 10 years and he played coed soccer.
He worked as a carpenter and construction worker in the Wood River Valley before opening his own construction company.
He and his wife Kari Mendez started a family Peruvian Store called Plazita in Bellevue about six months ago where they sell Peruvian and other Latin American products. He has two children—Guillermo, 20, and Arlet, 8.
Katia Inca Cisneros said the hospitals in Peru have not performed any surgeries to address her brother’s injuries.
“Fredy is generous and a amazing guy,” she said. “We are most grateful for the community’s support. All funds will be used for the air ambulance to bring Fredy home and medical and rehabilitation expenses.”