POSTED: 12:46 p.m. PDT July 18, 2002
UPDATED: 9:41 p.m. PDT July 18, 2002
SAN DIEGO -- A statewide dragnet for the killer of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion has led to numerous people being questioned and some arrests for unrelated violations, but no one has been held in the kidnap-murder, a sheriff's official said.
"In the course of pursuing these leads, there have been numerous detentions, there have been a few arrests, there have been vehicles impounded," Orange County Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo told reporters after media accounts of an arrest.
"None of that, however, is to be mistaken with there having been an arrest for the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Runnion," he said.
Jaramillo was responding to a flood of news reports about an incident in Fresno, 220 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in California's Central Valley.
California Highway Patrol officers stopped a car there and detained its driver after someone reported that the driver and the car fit the description of the person sought in the kidnap-killing, CHP Sgt. Ted Eichman said. The man was detained for failure to yield
"We sent out a statewide alert to all our officers and disseminated the poster to all our officers. We directed our officers to maintain vigilance in areas frequented by children, including parks and schools," said CHP Assistant Chief Art Acevedo.
The girl was abducted Monday in Stanton and her body was found Tuesday near a Riverside County highway. An autopsy determined she was sexually assaulted and died of asphyxiation, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona said on Wednesday.
The findings showed that Samantha had been alive for several hours after being abducted, Carona said.
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.
The Sheriff's Department released a sketch and description of the kidnapper based on the account of a playmate who was with Samantha when she was kidnapped. FBI agent Richard Garcia said the girl was able to identify speech patterns, and as a result, investigators believe the man is a Hispanic American. He was described as having slicked-back black hair and a thin black mustache. He wore a powder blue button-down shirt.
"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, 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.
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," he said.
Samantha's 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. Danielle's body was found and a neighbor is on trial. Elizabeth and Jahi remain missing.
Samantha's body was discovered Tuesday afternoon in neighboring Riverside County near the two-lane Highway 74 on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest, about 50 miles from Stanton. The body was spotted about 3 p.m. by two men in a ravine near a hang-gliding launch site.
Her grandmother identified the remains through photos from the site where the body was found.
Samantha and friend Sarah Ahn, 5, were sitting on a wall playing a board 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, Erin Runnion, and stepfather, Ken Donnelly, were at work and her grandmother, Virginia Runnion, was at home at the time of the kidnapping.
Samantha's biological father, Derek Jackson of Sunderland, Mass., was contacted by authorities and ruled out as a suspect, Runnion said earlier.
Runnion, who made an anguished plea for the return of her daughter Tuesday, stayed in seclusion after the body's identification.
The news spread fear in Stanton, a city of 38,000 southeast of Los Angeles.
Melissa Apodaca, 30, of Anaheim, brought her three children to Stanton on Wednesday to view a memorial for Samantha. 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."
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