Laotian Boy Missing Since Monday Found in Mexico

An intensive search for a 3-year-old Laotian boy missing from his Linda Vista home since Monday ended Wednesday evening when the child was found unharmed in Mexico.

A San Diego Police Dept. spokesman said Santi (Ole) Khanthomg was brought across the border after 11 p.m. by two San Diego officers and was expected to arrive at the department’s western substation shortly before midnight. Detective Dan Wilson said the boy was “in very good condition.”

Wilson said Khanthomg was found sometime after 4 p.m. He said information was not available as to where the boy was found in Mexico, whether he was alone or who found him. Wilson said Khanthomg’s mother was on her way to the police substation.

The search for the youngster had wound down Wednesday after disappointed investigators determined that there was no place left to look for the child within San Diego’s Indochinese community.

More than 100 law enforcement and civilian searchers on Tuesday employed tracking dogs, scoured nearby canyons on horseback, conducted scores of interviews and even blared, in Indochinese languages, pleas for assistance from a helicopter. But they could find no trace of the child.

Ole had last been seen about 1:30 p.m. Monday, playing outside the furnished studio apartment that he shared with his 9-month-old sister and divorced mother on the 2200 block of Ulric Street.

The boy speaks no English.

Police distributed hundreds of photos of Ole throughout San Diego in hopes of finding the boy.

Earlier Wednesday, San Diego police were still attempting to locate Ole’s Laotian father, who lives in Texas. San Diego police spokesman Rick Carlson said the father was not considered a suspect.