Posted on 07/17/2002 9:58:45 AM PDT by My Favorite Headache
On Fox Now...
How absolutely terrible. I just don't understand how the grandmother could leave a five year old out playing out in the front yard.
It's exactly the stuff of national news. The random kidnapping and murdering of a child by a stranger is an extremely rare crime, and it's one of the worst crimes imaginable. It's appropriate for it to send our societal immune system into overdrive. Anyone contemplating such an act needs to be aware that the irrational fury of a great nation will be directed towards him personally.
The major problem nowadays is that the USA might get nuked by terrorists. Why are we not getting reporting about Iraq, Iran, Saudia Arabia. North Korea and South Korea should be in the national news. Britian and France responses to Iraq. Where Bin-Laden is? Why the senate is holding up bills?????? What has our congress been doing since 9-11. The WTC body count and who and what happen to all the pieces?
Body identified as missing Stanton girl
CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/17/state1257EDT0102.DTL
(07-17) 10:05 PDT (AP) --
STANTON, Calif. (AP) -- The body of a little girl found in a rugged, heavily forested area was identified Wednesday as that of missing 5-year-old Samantha Runnion.
Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona confirmed the identification at a press conference that confirmed fears of the community where the little girl lived.
"The body was found nude. At this point in time there is no obvious cause of death," Carona said, warning that there was a high risk that the killer could strike again.
"We believe that there is an ongoing risk, based on the profile provided to us by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that this individual will commit another crime with a similar fact pattern," he said.
The body was discovered Tuesday afternoon in neighboring Riverside County near Highway 74 on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest, about 50 miles from where Samantha was abducted.
The two-lane road, also known as Ortega Highway, runs east from San Juan Capistrano in Orange County and becomes largely rural in neighboring Riverside County.
Two men who were at a hang-gliding location spotted the body in an open field area.
Orange County authorities took the lead in investigating the case, even though the body was found outside the county. Riverside County provided bloodhounds to scour the area in an effort to determine if the girl was killed there or if her body was dumped there.
Authorities began a massive manhunt just minutes after Samantha was taken Monday evening kicking and screaming from her Stanton townhome complex by a man who lured her toward him by saying he needed help finding his dog.
Samantha was playing a board game with her friend Sarah Ahn when the man drove up in a two-door light green car after making a U-turn, police said. Authorities described the car as either a Honda or Acura.
The girls were sitting on a short wall about 150 feet from Samantha's home in the complex, which is not gated, when the man got out and asked for help finding his puppy, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.
Erin Runnion had wept as she begged for the return of her daughter.
"We don't want vengeance, we just want our baby back," she said Tuesday.
Authorities limited access to the Runnion home Tuesday night with police tape and by placing deputies around the perimeter. A police chaplain was seen entering the home at one point.
Samantha's mother and stepfather, Ken Donnelly, were at work and her grandmother was inside their home when the kidnapping occurred.
Samantha's abductor has been described by police as a Hispanic man with slicked-back black hair and a thin black mustache, wearing a powder blue button-down shirt.
Carona said investigators have received hundreds of tips from the public.
Samantha's biological father, Derek Jackson of Sunderland, Mass., was contacted by authorities and ruled out as a suspect, Runnion said.
Her abduction follows the high-profile kidnap cases of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City and Danielle van Dam in San Diego.
Samantha's family said they moved from nearby Garden Grove to Stanton a year ago because they wanted a safer environment for their three children, one where they could play outside without fear.
At the Stanton townhome complex, Alex Quintanar, 34, held his 3-year-old daughter, Alexa, who used to play with Samantha.
He said that he did not know how he would answer her questions when she asked for her Samantha.
"When she can understand, I'll tell her she went to heaven," Quintanar said.
©2002 Associated Press
Oh yes. I don't think this is a newsworthy story, so I must be a pedophile. Hello?
She's 14 and I still don't let her roam the neighborhood by herself.
You're entitled to do whatever you want to do. She's your child. I think you're nuts.
It figures. Go back where you came from.
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