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Topic: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe (Read 213 times)

Rhune
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Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 2:54am »

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Kidnapped San Jose girl found alive in East Palo Alto
Jennette Tamayo, 9, is left near market; 'she's in good shape'

Demian Bulwa, Matthew B. Stannard, Stacy Finz and Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writers Monday, June 9, 2003

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A 9-year-old San Jose girl who was kidnapped from her family's home was found alive in East Palo Alto late Sunday night after being dropped off near a market, police said.

Authorities said Jennette Tamayo -- whose brazen kidnapping Friday was caught on a neighbor's surveillance tape -- appeared to be unharmed.

"She's at the station; she's in good shape," said East Palo Alto police Lt. Rahn Sibley. "I'm just thankful that she's found. She's apparently OK, and she'll be returned to her family shortly."

Neighbors of the girl gathered on the street and hugged when they heard the news.

"We're totally relieved," said Erin Williams. "I just hope she's healthy. We know she's alive. We just hope she's OK."

Family members were not at home when word spread of her discovery, and few details were available late last night about her discovery.

The owner of the store where she was discovered told KGO-TV that Jennette had been crying when she came into the market around 10:30 p.m.

Isa Yasin said he had asked the girl whether she was OK, and she said no.

"She said: 'Please don't call the cops. Please don't call the cops. . . . I need to use the phone,' " Yasin said.

Yasin said he had helped her call a number, but an answering machine answered. When he realized she was the missing girl, Yasin said, he called 911.

Jennette, a fourth-grader, was taken from her San Jose home after her kidnapper savagely beat her mother and brother, who arrived home to find an intruder in their house and Jennette Tamayo crying in the back seat of his car, which was parked inside their garage.

Earlier Sunday, San Jose police had released a grainy surveillance tape suggesting that the man who kidnapped Jennette had targeted her and might have had help in the attack.

A copy of the tape, played for reporters on Sunday by San Jose police, showed the kidnapper's car parked outside the Tamayo home. Then, the tape showed a second car -- what appears to be a dark American-made sedan with a square back and square taillights -- pull up next to the kidnapper's car.

The second car stayed there for 10 to 12 seconds, long enough for the drivers of the two vehicles to have a brief conversation, according to Steve Dixon, a San Jose police spokesman. Then, the sedan left.

A few minutes later, Jennette walked up to her house. Dixon said the driver of the second car "may have been tipping the kidnapper" to Jennette's imminent arrival home.

"And then again the driver may have just been asking for directions," Dixon said. "We just don't know. It's very suspicious."

What investigators are sure of is that the kidnapper "was clearly targeting that house and that family," Dixon said.

He said detectives had learned from Jennette's older brother that the first digit on the kidnap vehicle's blue and white California license plate was a "5." The car was described as a midsize silver or gold four-door sedan, possibly a late 1980s or early 1990s Dodge Shadow or Nissan Sentra, with chromed wheels and tinted back windows. The tinting on the rear window was badly bubbling, said San Jose Police Chief William Landsdowne.

CAUGHT ON TAPE
A surveillance camera in the home of a neighbor, three doors down from Jennette's house, caught the suspect on tape several times during Friday's violent abduction. The neighbor has the camera because it was installed by her son, who is in the security equipment business. Many of the images are too fuzzy to make out, but forensic experts examined the tape closely for clues.

Search teams of police with bloodhounds and on horseback had fanned out across the neighborhood, and the FBI became fully involved in the investigation earlier Sunday.

HOME WAS TARGETED
Dixon said the suspect had specifically targeted the Southwind Drive home, waiting almost 30 minutes for the girl to come home and then spending an additional half-hour inside the house. Detectives did not find evidence of a sexual assault, Dixon said. The victim's family had told police that they were baffled by the attack and until Friday had never before seen the man who accosted them, Dixon said.

Investigators suspect the kidnapper got information about the family from someone who knows them. So they were looking at who had recently been to the house to visit or to attend parties. They were also looking at whether the family was mistakenly chosen -- the kidnapper might have been targeting previous tenants of the house.

"We don't yet know what the motive of the suspect was," Dixon said. "But the video gives us even more suspicion. This is someone lying in wait for the victim. How did he know she lived there? How did he know when she was coming home? How did he know no one else would be there at the time?"

On Friday residents on the middle-class street paid little attention to the car parked near the victim's home. Fortunately for police, however, the neighbor's surveillance camera was rolling nonstop.

Here's what it showed: The driver got out of his car shortly after arriving at the house and walked up to the residence. At that point the man disappeared off the surveillance camera. About fourteen minutes later he got back in his car.

CAR STOPS ALONGSIDE
Twelve minutes later, the dark sedan passed him, stopped and backed up until it was next to the suspect's car. Four minutes later, Jennette was spotted on tape walking across the street and then across her lawn to her house. The suspect waited two minutes, got out of his car and followed her inside the house, where he spent a half hour, police said. Then the video showed him walking back to his car alone, getting into the vehicle and backing it into the garage. A couple of minutes later, Jennette's mother, brother and aunt pulled up in their Ford Expedition, a big SUV. The aunt got into her car and drove away. Then the camera loses sight of the attack.

Jennette's 15-year-old brother, Pablo, told police he had walked into the garage, where he saw his sister in the back of the kidnapper's car crying. At that point the suspect suddenly grabbed Pablo by the neck, the teenager told police. Pablo screamed, and his mother, Rosalie Tamayo, rushed to his aid. The kidnapper dragged him across the garage by his neck, police said. The suspect then hit the mother over the head with a pan and a ladder. She fought back, scratching him in the face, police said.

SCREAMS HEARD ON TAPE
About 10 minutes later, the video showed the brother rushing out of the garage and over to the neighbor's house for help. At the same time the mother rushed to the street. Screams can be heard on the tape. The suspect got into his car with the girl and sped off, taking a hard right on Southwind Drive.

Both Rosalie and Pablo Tamayo were treated at a hospital and released. The family remained in seclusion in their home Sunday before Jennette was found. Jennette's cousin, Lupe Martinez, 21, came out of the residence for a few minutes to address reporters camped outside the house just two hours before the girl was found.

She said her aunt Rosalie was having a difficult time.

"She hasn't been eating," Martinez said. "She's missing her little girl."

She said her aunt didn't understand why her family was targeted.

"That's what we are trying to figure out, because it seemed like a burglary at first, but by the comments he made it seemed like it was planned out," she said.

The suspect, according to police, told Rosalie Tamayo when she asked what he wanted, "Well, you know what I want."

"We're just trying to figure out maybe if some time ago she saw this guy," Martinez said. "Maybe like a family gathering or at a friend's barbecue."

E-mail the writers at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

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MzWings
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #1 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 8:18am »

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For whatever reason - the Amber Alert message hasn't been removed.

I'm so relieved and happy this child was found! What a cutie she is.

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"Senility Prayer"...God grant me...
The senility to forget the people I never liked
The good fortune to run into the ones that I do
And the eyesight to tell the difference."

Rhune
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #2 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 9:58am »

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The people who run it probably just hadn't woken up and seen the good news yet.

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Addams
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #3 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 10:42am »

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I am so grateful that this child was safe and apparently unharmed. Her poor family. I pray for all of them to recover and for strength.

We are struggling in our neighbourhood with two attempted abductions in broad daylight in front of parents. The first was at the Loblaws store where I shop (by the way this is really scarey for us as parents) where the mom called a taxi with the boy beside her. A man offered the boy a chocolate bar when mom was on the phone and started to walk off with him. Mom saw them and freaked. This store is only a block or two away from where Holly Jones was abducted on May 13th and her body found washed up the following day on the shores of the Toronto islands on Lake Ontario.

Now this weekend another attempted abduction, this time when the mother was holding her little girls hand!. The man tried to grab the girl as they walked past an alcove. This time only about 1 block from Holly Jones' home.

The suspect descriptions in both of these attempted abductions are the same. Further east but only about 3 miles away at most - a man of the same description was seen watching kids at a playground and school.

This guy is brazen and yet seems to be able to escape without being caught. The cops have been out searching and come up empty handed.

It's all about 1 km from our home and we have not let our daughter out of our sight ever since the Holly Jones murder. now I know that men will leap at us and grab a child - well I am horrified.

Please pray that they find this person. FAST!

« Last Edit: Jun 9^th, 2003, 1:05pm by Addams »

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Rhune
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #4 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 12:10pm »

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This is just terrifying to think about, I can't imagine what it would be like to live with. Sad

Up above it says a Mom offered the boy a chocolate bar, is that meant to read a man, or was there actually a woman involved in all this as well?

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Addams
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #5 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 1:06pm »

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Rhune it was supposed to read "a man' thanks for that and I modified it to correct the post.

Man just gave him the chocolate bar and took the boys hand and quietly started to walk away. Imagine. The kid was right beside his mother.

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Rhune
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #6 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 1:33pm »

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Wow...it's hard to imagine they don't have a better description of him with his being so right out there in front of them. Sad

I followed your Holly Jones link in the other thread to your online news there and read there was a 3rd attempt as well, where he tried to take a child in the hallway of a gradeschool. He's right in to the school hallways...

:yikes:

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Addams
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #7 on: Jun 9^th, 2003, 1:44pm »

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white, 6 foot, between 50 and 65 (that's alot), grey hair. Possible goatee. 200 pounds. But no comment on whether he's muscular. gomez said he heard a small pot belly. sigh.

Not much to go on - you are right Rhune

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Rhune
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Re: Kidnapped Girl Found Safe
« Reply #8 on: Jun 10^th, 2003, 1:46pm »

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The best home security device is a dog (preferably a large one). It might be a good time to consider getting one, if you don't have one already. I was thinking about you last night and this situation. A dog in your house would discourage someone like this from coming in, in a serious way. A dog in your yard might stop him if you are in the backyard playing with her, since we already know a mother being there won't. I grew up with a black lab, and they are just such loving animals and good with kids, but they will defend your home. We had a break in once and he did chase the burgler away. The rest of our neighbors were all robbed, and in our house, he got partway in, you could see there was blood where he'd been bitten, and he left empty handed. This is a dog that would never have bitten us kids, no matter how mean or nice we were being to him at the time. If you do think about getting a dog, males are good, but females can be better. They often feel more maternal about your kids, and about protecting them than males do.

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