SAN JOSE GIRL,CLUE-delivery of a Little Caesars pepperoni pizza
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ABDUCTION OF SAN JOSE GIRL
By Julia Prodis Sulek, Roxanne Stites and Laura Kurtzman
Mercury News
A 9-year-old San Jose girl -- abducted, sexually assaulted and held hostage
for more than two days -- helped lead police early Monday to her alleged
kidnapper, who was hiding in a house just 12 blocks from her own home.
She remembered a key detail: the Saturday night delivery of a Little Caesars
pepperoni pizza, a clue police used to zero in on the South San Jose home
where she had been held captive for at least one night.
``We believe it was an abduction for sexual reasons,'' Thomas Wheatley,
assistant San Jose police chief, said Monday afternoon.
Police arrested David Montiel Cruz, 24, on suspicion of kidnapping,
attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and five sex charges, but
there was confusion over his real name. Fingerprints identified him as Cruz,
police said, but he was booked into the Santa Clara County jail as Enrique
Sosa Alvarez, according to a jail spokesman. He was being held without bail
and was treated in the jail infirmary after being bitten by a police dog
during his arrest.
Police said Cruz knew the girl through the children of a friend, who
neighbors say was his girlfriend.
The events that led to his capture began late Sunday, when police say he
dropped off the girl outside a liquor market in East Palo Alto. Shaking and
crying, she told the clerk she had been blindfolded and wanted to call her
mother. Within minutes, police arrived and started piecing together her
harrowing experience.
When she remembered the pizza, they roused the owner of a Little Caesars on
Monterey Road to open his store at 4:30 a.m. Monday to track the order to an
address on Dearwell Way.
The driver had even placed a flier of the missing girl on the box when he
went to the house Saturday evening, owner Ted Olson said, but the driver
couldn't recall who answered the door.
By 5:15 a.m. Monday, a SWAT team was raiding Cruz's house. He tried to fight
off a police officer and a police dog when they found him hiding in the
attic of the two-story home, where bedsheets were draped on the upstairs
windows and Christmas lights hung outside.
Mother gives thanks
In tearful comments to reporters Monday, the girl's mother -- who had
stitches across her forehead for injuries inflicted by the attacker she
tried to fight off Friday -- thanked authorities, friends and neighbors for
their help and prayers.
``My daughter has been born again,'' the frail-looking Roselia Tamayo,
surrounded by family members, said in Spanish.
Tamayo and her 15-year-old son, Pablo, had returned home about 4:30 p.m.
Friday to find the kidnapper in the garage next to his car, where the girl
was sitting in the back seat. A surveillance camera showed the suspect had
lain in wait until the girl got home at 4. He spent a half-hour in the house
with her before Tamayo arrived, police say. The mother, son and kidnapper
fought for 10 minutes before he fled in the car with the girl.
For two days, more than 150 officers combed South San Jose as volunteers
blanketed the area with fliers featuring the smiling 9-year-old who loved
the movie ``Lilo and Stitch'' with the sketch of her alleged captor.
``This is a success story of how well this country can come together and
bring back a girl who was terrified and lost,'' said Bill Lansdowne, San
Jose police chief. ``I have never seen such a courageous little girl who
kept her wits about her.''
When officers confirmed the girl had been found in East Palo Alto, the 911
dispatchers who took the call stood up and cheered. Her neighbors on
Southwind Drive poured out of their homes and hugged one another over the
news.
Police interviewed the girl Monday. She spoke in detail about her captor.
But about a half-hour into the interview, she began nodding off and police
let her sleep before questioning her again.
``She was most certainly terrified, and I'm sure she didn't sleep well, so
when she knew she was safe and could breathe, she just collapsed,'' said Rob
Davis, deputy San Jose police chief.
The girl's family has said the man was a ``total stranger.'' But neighbor
John Bosco said the victim was a past schoolmate of the 11-year-old twin
daughters of Cruz's girlfriend. The woman, Sylvia Gutierrez, dropped her
twins off for a sleepover at Bosco's house Saturday -- the same night the
victim told police she was at Cruz's house where pizza was delivered.
Gutierrez's 9-year-old son showed up at a friend's house crying Friday
afternoon -- about the same time the girl was abducted -- but he wouldn't
say why he was upset.
Bosco said Gutierrez told him she left Cruz, moving to her sister's house
last week just days before the abduction.
When Gutierrez dropped off her twins, Bosco showed her a flier with the
suspect's sketch and asked whether she thought the picture looked like
Cruz -- the man he only knew as David.
``She seemed OK until she saw the flier, and then she kind of went into a
whirl spin and then she wanted out of here,'' Bosco said. ``She said, `Oh,
no, no, that doesn't look like David,' and she left.''
Bosco said he had called police before Gutierrez arrived Saturday afternoon
and told them about Cruz's likeness to the sketch. He heard nothing back.
``I met him a couple of times,'' said Bosco, who said Cruz spoke only
Spanish so he couldn't communicate with him. ``I never really trusted him.''
In the coming days, police plan to talk to friends and acquaintances of
Cruz's, including children he may have known or recently been in contact
with.
While police offered few details about how the girl led them to Cruz's
house, they stressed she was ``the key player'' in finding him.
Police go to house
By early Monday morning, officers drove to the house and saw a man inside
who fit the abductor's description. Parked in the garage, they saw a Hyundai
Excel -- with the first digit in the license tag a 5 -- that fit the
description of the kidnapper's car and the partial plate number the girl's
brother had told to police. Police kept watch on the house until more
officers and a special operations team arrived.
Lansdowne, the police chief, said officers had obtained a search warrant.
First, they fired a flash-bang device, then entered and searched the house
but found no one until they heard a noise in the attic.
Officer Rick Foster and his dog, Vin, climbed into the attic and struggled
with Cruz in the tight attic space. The suspect kicked the officer in the
groin and continued to wrestle with him, police said, and the police dog bit
Cruz at least once during the fight.
``It was really disturbing,'' said neighbor Steven Escola, whose family was
awakened as police prepared to storm Cruz's house. ``Everyone was crying.''
On Monday afternoon, police hauled away bags of evidence and towed the
Hyundai and a Cadillac from the house on Dearwell Way where plywood covered
the front door. Police said they had collected hair samples and other
evidence. Police used fingerprints to identify Cruz, but said his many
aliases were making it difficult to sort out his criminal background.
`I'm so excited'
By nightfall, about 100 people showed up at a neighborhood park for a vigil
that was canceled because neighbors said they wanted to consult with the
girl's family before celebrating her return.
Lorrie Nuñez, who lives a couple of blocks from the Tamayo home, summed up
the neighborhood's relief. ``She's a brilliant little girl. I'm so happy she
was able to compose herself and allow police to capture this man. I'm so
excited she's home.''
Nuñez had spent six hours Sunday with volunteer teams out searching for the
girl. On Friday, the day of the kidnapping, Nuñez had taken her 4-year-old
daughter and 3-year-old son to the kidnapping scene to ``explain to them why
Mommy and Daddy always tell you what can happen if you're not always
careful.''
The girl's mother, Tamayo, had expressed similar sentiments earlier in the
day.
``To all mothers: Don't let your children go out alone no matter how safe
the street may be,'' she said. ``When you lose a child, you feel like you
yourself are dying.''
Linda Griffith
news:bc4m7s$4rd$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
> http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6053659.htm
>
> ABDUCTION OF SAN JOSE GIRL
> By Julia Prodis Sulek, Roxanne Stites and Laura Kurtzman
> Mercury News
>
> A 9-year-old San Jose girl -- abducted, sexually assaulted and held
hostage
> for more than two days -- helped lead police early Monday to her alleged
> kidnapper, who was hiding in a house just 12 blocks from her own home.
I'm so glad this girl got home safe and sound! I really didn't think she'd
make it out alive, since the man was violent on the first day, and she was
gone for as long as she was. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to turn out
well after two days of captivity, usually.
I still wonder about the baby-sitter. Was the ex-girlfriend perhaps the one
who usually watched Jeanette after school? The statement that she usually
had a babysitter, but that she didn't on that day, seems to just be "hanging
out there" to me.
Linda
Messalina
> Lorrie Nuñez, who lives a couple of blocks from the Tamayo home, summed up
> the neighborhood's relief. ``She's a brilliant little girl. I'm so happy she
> was able to compose herself and allow police to capture this man. I'm so
> excited she's home.''
>
> Nuñez had spent six hours Sunday with volunteer teams out searching for the
> girl. On Friday, the day of the kidnapping, Nuñez had taken her 4-year-old
> daughter and 3-year-old son to the kidnapping scene to ``explain to them why
> Mommy and Daddy always tell you what can happen if you're not always
> careful.''
Way to scare the crap out of your children, stupid bitch.
"top stupid to breath, but not too stupid to breed."
M.
Magic Foot
sec...@duelingoak.com says...
> > Nuñez had spent six hours Sunday with volunteer teams out searching for the
> > girl. On Friday, the day of the kidnapping, Nuñez had taken her 4-year-old
> > daughter and 3-year-old son to the kidnapping scene to ``explain to them why
> > Mommy and Daddy always tell you what can happen if you're not always
> > careful.''
>
> Way to scare the crap out of your children, stupid bitch.
Really. In what way was Jeanette not "careful"? She was ambushed in her OWN
HOME! The fact that something really bad happened to a girl in their own
neighborhood DOES make it real for kids, as opposed to hearing stories that,
for all they know, are only a step above fairy tales. Still ... 3 & 4
years old? So now they know that they aren't safe ANYWHERE, even if their
Mommy and maybe even Daddy are right there to fight to protect them.
--
I HAVE A MAGIC FOOT!!!
-- Dick Solomon, Third Rock From The Sun
