8-Year-Old Girl Breaks Free From Would-Be Abductor
POSTED: 3:24 p.m. PDT July 17, 2002
UPDATED: 6:35 a.m. PDT July 18, 2002
SAN DIEGO -- Police searched Wednesday for a man who grabbed an 8-year-old girl near an Oak Park bus stop in a kidnapping attempt similar to the fatal abduction of an Orange County girl a day earlier.
Investigators said they had no evidence, however, that Tuesday's attempt was carried out by the same man who kidnapped and killed 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton.
The San Diego girl and her sister were standing on Bayview Heights Place at about 4 p.m. when a man pulled up in a gold minivan, got out, approached them and seized the child's arm, according to police. The girl broke free and the man got back in his van and drove away on westbound Federal Boulevard. The child was not injured, police said.
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:
- if an alarm system is available, keep it on
- know who is going in and out of the home, and get references
- keep doors leading outside locked at all times
- teach children what to do if they are approached by a stranger, including staying away from the person's car
- tell them to avoid short cuts and stick to well-lighted public areas.
*Who* is Peter D. van Dam?
Brenda van Dam Speaks With Samantha's Mother!!!!
CHELSEA J. CARTER
Associated PressSTANTON ---- 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.
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.
Brenda van Dam, whose daughter Danielle was abducted and killed in February in Sabre Springs, said she spoke with Samantha's mother to offer consolation.
"They were both sweet, wonderful girls who loved life and their family," van Dam said in a statement released to reporters.
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
Ha...that was a good one defiant...strange coincedence and happenings, one might admit...IF, SDPD has the "wrong" perp...and others fall victim...that would be tragic, agreed?
Oh, ok. Thanks. :o)
Sick? Excuse me Kim...Brenda jumped in front of the cameras, for more 15 minutes...my inquiry was to where is Damon..do they still live together? Is he out of the state..?? What are you inferring is sick about that?
I wonder if Brenda got references from all those strangers at the bar before she asked them to go home with her???
I wish brenda would SHUT UP, and go away. She is so blatantly trying to become a female John Walsh or Marc Klaas that it makes me sick.
