I may be wrong, but I thought that LE originally got the wrong photo, but they did get the right photo after (he was identified through this photo). I was under the impression that the photo they actually released to the public was the correct photo.
Update, 9 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 6: A baby girl, her parents, and an uncle were found dead in a Merced County orchard two days after they were kidnapped at gunpoint from their business, police said. “Our worst fears have been confirmed,” Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said at a Wednesday night...
gvwire.com
The Merced County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that investigators identified Jesus Salgado, 48, after he used a victim’s ATM card. Authorities previously said that family members were taken against their will at gunpoint from a Merced business in the 800 block of South Highway 59 on Monday.
This Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022, video image released by the Merced County Sheriff’s Office shows Jesus Salgado, 48, making a bank transaction at an ATM at a bank in Atwater. Salgado is similar in appearance to the man in the surveillance photo from the original kidnapping scene where four members of a family, including an 8-month-old child, were taken against their will at gunpoint from a business in Merced on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (Merced County SO via AP)
Detectives obtained a surveillance photo from the ATM in Atwater and “the person is similar in appearance to the surveillance photo from the original kidnapping scene,” the office said in a statement. The sheriff’s office had released two still images of a possible suspect seen in surveillance footage and asked for the public’s help in identifying him.