Most days, children of all ages run around the courtyards of a sprawling Oak Park apartment complex. They dash in and out of one another's homes, play video games, goof off with their friends. Posted on 07/18/2002 9:40:01 AM PDT by FresnoDA
July 18, 2002
Most days, children of all ages run around the courtyards of a sprawling Oak Park apartment complex. They dash in and out of one another's homes, play video games, goof off with their friends.
But yesterday, no children were out playing. Hardly anyone was outside.
All afternoon, school buses dropped off many of the 300 children who live here, but within minutes they were gone, spending a beautiful sunny day inside because their parents were afraid for their safety.
Afraid because, on Tuesday, someone tried to snatch an 8-year-old girl outside the 500-unit complex. In the middle of the afternoon. In front of the manager's office. And with numerous other children in sight.
"We were caught off guard," said Marlena Lewis, coordinator of an after-school program at the apartment complex and the person who called police. "I mean, it happened in broad daylight. The highway's right there. He could have gotten her in the car and they would have been long gone."
The girl was waiting at a bus stop with her older sister near Bayview Heights Place about 4 p.m. when a man tried to grasp her arm and drag her into his vehicle. The girl broke free, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. She was upset but not hurt.
The incident has residents especially afraid because it came just a day after 5-year-old Samantha Runnion was abducted in Orange County. Samantha's body was found Tuesday; her killer has not been caught.
Residents are afraid, too, because the memories are still fresh of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who was kidnapped from her Sabre Springs home in the middle of the night in February and later found slain. And of 2-year-old Jahi Turner, reported missing from Golden Hill by his stepfather in April. He has not been found.
So, residents of the Oak Park apartments are keeping their children under a watchful eye and behind closed doors.
"It's deserted; it's like a ghost town," said Shrrell Archie, as she sat on the stoop leading to her apartment.
Her 9-year-old son, Eddie Anderson, was inside watching TV because she won't let him out to play.
"It's a shame to keep your kids prisoner," Archie said. "But I won't let him out of the house until they catch" the would-be abductor.
Police were cautious in making any link between the Oak Park incident and the Orange County case, although they did note similarities.
In the Orange County case, authorities are seeking a Latino with thick black hair and a thin black mustache who was driving a green compact car. They have described him as a potential serial killer who could strike again. He is believed to be in his 20s or 30s.
The man suspected of trying to kidnap the girl in Oak Park was described as Latino, in his mid-40s, with black hair and a mustache. He is about 5 feet 5 inches with a medium to heavy build and may be wearing braces. He was driving a tan or gold van.
On the day the Oak Park abduction attempt occurred, authorities in San Diego, particularly along the border, were looking for the Orange County kidnapper, thinking he might try to drive through San Diego on the way to Mexico.
Residents of the surrounding Oak Park neighborhood are working to get the word out about the attempted kidnapping. Margo Leimbach, president of the Oak Park Community Council, is contacting churches, schools and Neighborhood Watch leaders and sending out information via e-mail.
"These people are getting so blatant, doing this in broad daylight," she said. "What do we tell our kids now?"
That question was much on the minds of many parents as they played at parks and lakes around the county yesterday. Most were especially careful about keeping a watchful eye on their children.
Jessica Russell of North Park said she looks around the Balboa Park playground while her 2-year-old daughter and niece play, suspicious of all the adults.
"I'm wondering who the kidnapper is," she said.
And she's so anxious about the girls' safety when they visit the park that she can't relax.
"It's nerve-racking," Russell said. "I can't even read the paper because I'm trying to watch them."
Rebecca Gladden of Escondido said she gave her daughter Ashley, 11, a cell phone a few days ago so they could keep in contact while Ashley attends day camp this summer. They also talk often about how to stay safe.
"I tell her that she doesn't have to be polite to strangers," Gladden said.
The parents of young boys are being careful, too.
Lisa Robinson said she used to let her three boys play without supervision while she played tennis at Kit Carson Park in Escondido. But, after the van Dam kidnapping, the boys – ages 8, 9 and 12 – wanted to stay close to her at the tennis court.
"I have no preconceived notions that boys are any safer than girls," she said.
Police are continuing their investigation in the Oak Park case.
"We are taking this attempted kidnap very seriously and are asking for help from the public if they know any information on a possible suspect," police spokesman Robinson said.
Child-abuse detectives said people with information should call (619) 531-2260.
The girls gave police a sketchy description of the kidnapper. They said he appeared to be a Latino man who was about 45 years old. The suspect in the Orange County case was described as being between 25 and 40 years old. The only witness to that kidnapping, a 5-year-old friend of the victim, said the man was driving a light-green Honda or Acura two-door sedan, not a minivan.
San Diego-area authorities have received numerous reports of possible sightings of the suspect who snatched Samantha outside her home. Police say the suspect is a pedophile who may be a serial rapist and murderer. But they have no evidence that he is in this area. San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano said called child kidnappings like the Oceanside case are "very disturbing" and urged parents and others in the community to be extra vigilant.
"In the years that I've been in law enforcement, these types of cases, prior to the last six months, have been very few," Bejarano said.
The chief mentioned two recent San Diego cases -- the kidnap-murder of 7- year-old Danielle van Dam of Sabre Springs and the disappearance 2-year-old Jahi Turner from a local park -- as well as the abduction of Elizabeth Smart in Utah.
Bejarano urged parents to supervise children at all times and offered other suggestions to keep children safe, including:
STANTON ---- A kidnapped 5-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated before her body was dumped near a rural highway like a "calling card" warning that the killer intends to strike again, investigators said Wednesday.
An autopsy confirmed Samantha Runnion was sexually assaulted and the cause of death, which occurred sometime Tuesday, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona said.
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The findings showed that Samantha had been alive for some hours after being taken, and the sheriff said the killer may bear physical signs of a struggle.
"He will probably have unexplained injuries to his hands, arms and possibly face," said Carona, who noted that the White House had called to offer any FBI assistance in finding the killer.
"Don't sleep, don't eat, because we're coming after you," Carona warned the killer, saying he is likely both a serial rapist and serial killer.
A sexual predator who kills is going to do it again, FBI agent Richard Garcia said. The body was found Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the kidnapping.
"The way the body was found, the fact it was not buried, not hidden and such, and how it was left is almost like a calling card, like a challenge: 'I'm here and I'm coming back again.' This is the reason why we're saying this person is going to strike again," he said.
Samantha's 27-year-old mother, Erin Runnion, who made an anguished plea for the return of her daughter a day earlier, stayed in seclusion after the body's identification.
The news spread fear in Stanton, a city of 38,000 southeast of Los Angeles.
Tammie Fike, 31, clutched the hand of her 6-year-old son, Anthony, as she headed to a memorial to say a prayer for Samantha. "I'm scared to let him go out," said Fike, who instructed her son to yell "fire" and to run if a stranger approached him.
"I'm only allowed to talk to friends of my mom," Anthony said.
Melissa Apodaca, 30, of Anaheim brought her three children to the memorial. She said she had made them watch newscasts about the abduction.
"They need to know this," she said.
Apodaca's daughter, Alecia, 10, said she was scared that the killer "would come around my house and hurt me and my brothers." Her 9-year-old brother, Edward, said he came "to pray for the girl and hope that she's happy up in heaven."
Officers at the California Highway Patrol's Temecula office started a fund for Samantha's family Wednesday.
Officer Ron Thatcher said officers assigned to the Temecula CHP are donating money to The Samantha Runnion Fund. He said that anyone else wishing to donate can do so by dropping off or mailing checks to the Temecula CHP, 27685 Commerce Center Drive, Temecula, CA 92590.
Garcia addressed the unknown killer directly during the televised news conference.
"The individual is in fact watching us right now. I want to tell you ... we will find you and we will bring you to justice," Garcia said.
The Sheriff's Department released a sketch and description of the kidnapper based on the account of a playmate who was with Samantha. Garcia said that girl was able to identify speech patterns and as a result investigators believe the man is an Americanized Latino rather than a foreign national. The man was described as having slicked-back black hair and a thin black mustache. He wore a powder blue button-down shirt.
Samantha's abduction Monday evening was the nation's fourth high-profile disappearance of a child this year.
Her abduction follows the high-profile cases of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City and 7-year-old Danielle van Dam and 2-year-old Jahi Turner in San Diego County. Danielle' body was found and a neighbor is on trial. Elizabeth and Jahi remain missing.
Samantha's remains were identified by her grandmother through photos from the site where the body was found.
The body was discovered Tuesday afternoon in neighboring Riverside County near two-lane Highway 74 on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest, about 50 miles from Stanton. The road is a heavily traveled route between the two counties.
Two men spotted the body about 3 p.m. in a ravine near a hang-gliding launch site.
"Because the body was found very quickly, we have a high expectation that there will be significant forensic evidence found at the scene and significant forensic evidence found on the body of Samantha Runnion," the sheriff said.
Samantha and friend Sarah Ahn, 5, were sitting on a wall playing a guessing game about 150 feet from Samantha's home Monday evening when a man drove up in a two-door light green Honda or Acura after making a U-turn. The man got out and asked for help finding his puppy, then took off with the kicking and screaming girl.
Samantha's mother, a British Petroleum analyst in Long Beach, and stepfather, Ken Donnelly, who works at an investment firm, were at work and her grandmother, Virginia Runnion, was at home at the time.
Samantha's biological father, Derek Jackson of Sunderland, Mass., was contacted by authorities and ruled out as a suspect, Erin Runnion said Tuesday.
Samantha, who was born in Massachusetts, would have turned 6 on July 26. She was an advanced student who had just finished first grade at a private elementary school.
Staff Writer John Hall contributed to this report.
7/18/02
Maybe Westerfield activated his sleeper cells.
Body was left just like DVD. How come this body "looks like a calling card" but DVD did not.
Was the left foot missing too???
(07-18-2002) - San Diego police have been getting dozens of calls from concerned parents about the Orange County case, and an incident involving an Oak Park girl this week.
An attempted kidnap happened at about four in the afternoon on Tuesday in the Southeast San Diego neighborhood.
A group of girls was walking near Bayview Heights Place, when an unshaven Hispanic man in his 40's approached the girls from a gold minivan.
"He got out of the van, he actually tried to grab one of the girls. And he did grab an 8-year-old by the arm. She was able to pull free of him, run home, and call police immediately," said Bill Robinson of the SD Police Department.
Authorities say they believe this man is still in the area.
What LE leak???
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