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MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 9 � A 9-year-old girl who was brazenly kidnapped from her home last Friday was �doing very well� on Monday after walking into a convenience store late Sunday night, a police official said. Police said it was unclear whether Jennette Tamayo escaped or was released by her kidnapper, who remained at large.
�She was crying and scared.� � ISA YASIN Owner, Eastside Market AFTER BEING reunited with relatives, Tamayo was �doing very well, her spirits are good,� San Jose Police Chief Bill Lansdowne said Monday on NBC�s �Today� show. Lansdowne said the girl was healthy and had not suffered major physical injuries. He would not comment on whether she had been sexually assaulted. About 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Jennette walked into the Eastside Market in East Palo Alto, about 30 miles from her home. Isa Yasin, the owner of the shop, said he did not see anyone drop off the girl and could not tell if she had been harmed. �She was crying and scared,� Yasin said. After talking briefly with the girl, Yasin realized her identity and called police. No arrests have been made. Police have not identified the suspect, but said they expect to apprehend him quickly. �She�s provided a lot of information and we are very confident it�s going to lead us very quickly to the suspect,� Lansdowne said.
FOCUS ON SUSPECT Deputy Chief Rob Davis said investigators are focusing on one suspect, who police believe was unknown to the family. Davis refused to discuss further details about the man, except to say that neither Jennette�s father nor stepfather were suspects. In Jennette�s neighborhood, residents poured into the streets Sunday night to hug and celebrate as the news of her discovery spread. �It was just like a Hollywood script,� said neighbor Karen Kamfolt. �People came from all directions out of their houses.� �It�s a wonderful ending to a horrible nightmare,� said Kamfolt, whose surveillance cameras recorded the kidnapping as it unfolded Friday afternoon. The girl�s mother and 13-year-old brother, who were savagely beaten by the abductor, told authorities after the abduction that they had never seen the man before, said Katherine Unger, a San Jose police spokeswoman. Police said the man had staked out the girl�s house and waited for her to come home from school. Scenes of the abduction were captured by a neighbor�s video surveillance camera that police released Sunday. The videotape showed a man pulling up in front of Tamayo�s home Friday afternoon and going inside. Police aren�t sure how he was able to enter, but they believe he may have used a broken rear window. After approximately 25 minutes inside, the suspect was seen returning to wait in the car. At one point another car drives past, then backs up and lingers next to the suspect�s car. Police said they were looking for the driver of that car.
WAITING FOR VICTIM At approximately 4:20 p.m., Jennette was seen crossing the street and entering the house alone. The man got out of the car about 90 seconds later and followed her into the house. After another 25 minutes inside, the suspect came back outside, backed his car into the garage and closed the door. Around this time, Jennette�s mother, aunt and 15-year-old brother drove up. The aunt got out and drove away in a separate car, while the boy tried to open the garage door. He managed to pry the bottom part of the door open and crawled underneath, at which point, police say, he was attacked. While the attack isn�t visible on the surveillance tape, sounds of the altercation can be heard and Rosalie Tamayo was seen running inside the house to help her son. Police said the suspect confronted her between the kitchen and garage, and beat her with pans and a ladder. By now the boy had broken free, and ran outside for help. His mother came out moments later, beaten and bloodied but screaming for help as well. The suspect then pulled out of the driveway with Jennette inside in his car and sped across the lawn, crushing rose bushes along the way. Rosalie Tamayo and her son were treated at a hospital and released.
�VERY, VERY BRAZEN� �The tape is very disturbing,� San Jose Police spokesman Steve Dixon said. �It�s very, very brazen.� Dixon said that while the images on the black-and-white tape are not always clear, the tape shows the attack was not a random residential burglary. �The tape makes it very clear that he was targeting this house,� Dixon said. �He wasn�t roaming the neighborhood looking for houses to break into. He was there for quite some time, just waiting for this little girl to come home.� The video did not include any distinct shots of the kidnapper�s license plate or his face. Dixon said police plan to try and enhance the video to see if the images can be made more clear. Unger, the neighbor, said Jennette, a fourth-grader with long brown hair streaked with blonde, usually spent afternoons with a baby sitter. It was not clear whether the baby sitter was in the home when the man broke in; the mother and brother said they were attacked by the suspect after arriving home together.
SUSPECT SKETCH IN CIRCULATION Police released a sketch of the man Saturday. They described him as being in his 30s to early 40s, from 5-feet-2 to 5-feet-5-inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds. He was dark haired, unshaven, and wore a gray beanie and silver colored shirt. He may have scratches on his face or arms from a struggle with Jennette�s mother. The California Highway Patrol issued a statewide Amber Alert for a silver sedan the man drove from the scene. It had tinted windows in the rear and a loud muffler and appeared similar to a late 80s or early 90s Honda Accord. The abduction shook residents of the quiet middle class neighborhood, where Jennette lives with her mother, brother and stepfather. Kumar Malavy, who was captured on the videotape playing basketball with his son as the suspect sat in his car nearby, was shooting hoops again on Sunday but said his sense of security had been shattered. �The kids are concerned, they�re scared. They want to make sure the security system is on before going to sleep,� he said.
NBC News� James Hattori, KNTV News� Traci Grant and The Associated Press contributed to this report. It's a sad world we live in that we have to have an alarm on our homes to prevent our children from being snatched by perverts! Everything's been worked out with Ebay. Not quite to my satisfaction, but I'm not going to be kicked off for relisting my stuff. The guy with the original ghost in a jar auction trademarked Ghost in A Jar. Pretty strange, as an (I'm not kidding here) organization of past life therapists already had it trademarked! Could make things interesting! Leaving for Tn and Ky on the 24th for 8 lovely days of caving and hanging out with my mother! Her boyfriend wants to pay me to list a bunch of his stuff on Ebay for him. I'll list most of it, but am not helping him sell items his estranged daughter made for him. He'd regret that for the rest of his life! Isn't waking up in a huddle of kitties the nicest thing in the world?
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2003-06-09 |
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