A man was found dead near Lake Berryessa in Napa County on Friday, three days after he was kidnapped from a Sikh temple 100 miles away in the Central Valley, investigators said.
Avtar Singh, 57, was reported missing from Gurdwara Gur Nanak Parkash in Tracy on February 17, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office. Surveillance footage shows three people dressed in black forcing him into a white SUV and speeding away, investigators said.
A fisherman found Singh’s body Friday afternoon near a lake and called police, authorities said. Sheriff’s officials declined to release the cause of death but said they are investigating a homicide. A white SUV was found nearby, officials said.
Singh worked and lived at the temple with his wife and their three six-month-old children, said temple spokesman Deep Singh, who is not related to the victim. Avtar’s wife was shocked when she returned from work on February 17 to find the children alone, Deep said. She asked for help from other members of the temple but no one could find her husband, she said.
Deep then called the cameraman at the temple and looked at the surveillance footage from that afternoon, he said. It showed a white SUV in the parking lot with a man getting out, he said. The man first knocked on the door of the temple laundry, and when no one answered, he knocked on Avtar’s door, Deep said.
Avtar was apparently having difficulty understanding the man and, over the phone, called another man who lives in the temple to help translate, Deep said. The man on the phone happened to have the same last name as the man he was looking for, causing confusion, he said.
Avtar handed over the phone to the kidnapper, who wanted to know if the translator was the man he was looking for and if he “had his belongings,” Deep said. The translator refused and asked what kind of “stuff,” he didn’t answer, Deep said.
Avtar then walked the man to the SUV, according to the surveillance footage reviewed by Deep. When they approached the car, the man tried to push him inside, but Avtar overpowered him and fled, he said. Two other men then got out of the car, hit Avtar, threw him to the ground and loaded him into an SUV, said Deep.
A preliminary investigation suggests that Avtar was not the target of the kidnapping, confirmed Heather Brent, public information officer for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office. “We believe that a different person was intended and that Mr. Singh was taken by mistake,” he said.
Avtar served as the temple’s head chef for the past 23 years, and was involved in serving the Sikh community and the Tracy area in general, Deep said. Once a month, she cooked about 400 hot meals that the temple sent to a homeless shelter in Stockton, and she prepared meals for people displaced by the wildfires, she said.
Community members had hoped the kidnappers would release Avtar once they realized their mistake, and the news of his death came as a shock, Deep said. “This evil just entered the temple and they took him,” he said.
An online fundraising page to cover Avtar’s funeral expenses and help support his widow and children has received several hundred thousand dollars in donations. “He was known for his humility, his dedication to peace, and his love that made everyone feel like family,” wrote its editors. “His service, integrity, and unwavering faith touched many lives, and his absence leaves a great void in our community.”
