A 23-year-old man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly molesting an 8-year-old girl for three years, the Merced County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Detective Dustin Witt began investigating Oscar Garcia earlier this month, after the victim came forward and said he’d been touching her inappropriately.

Garcia is the boyfriend of the victim’s older sister and has been living at her Los Banos residence for the past month, according to Deputy Tom MacKenzie, sheriff’s spokesman.

Witt discovered Garcia had been abusing the victim since she was 5 years old at various locations in the Los Banos area, investigators say.

The detective obtained an arrest warrant for Garcia and waited for him at Los Banos Human Services Agency on Tuesday.

Garcia had an appointment to visit with his son, who was placed with foster parents before the molestation case surfaced.

When Garcia arrived, Witt took him into custody without incident, MacKenzie said.

Reasons why the suspect’s son is with foster parents weren’t disclosed, but there’s no open investigation by the sheriff’s department into misconduct about the boy.

The girl is being cared for by Merced County Child Protective Services.

An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Garcia was booked on the warrant and remains without bail at the Merced County Jail.