Teen-Ager Held in Baby’s Abduction

Eighteen-year-old Darlene Johnson said Friday that she had admitted to police that she abducted an infant from an Orange County day-care center and kept the child in her Garden Grove home for several hours before she was found during a search of the neighborhood.

But, in an interview at the Orange County Jail, Johnson denied committing any crime and said she had confessed only to protect a relative.

Victoria Marie Clark, the 14-month-old daughter of Matthew and Debbie Clark, was taken from the Young Horizons day-care center in Garden Grove about 3 p.m. Thursday. She was reunited with her parents eight hours later after being found in Johnson’s home, according to police.

“When you care about someone and don’t want to see them hurt, you protect them,” Johnson said in the interview. She declined to identify the relative she said she was protecting and added: “Somebody else (took the child), and I know who it is.”

Police Decline Comment

Garden Grove police declined to comment on Johnson’s statements.

“We have nothing to say, other than that the evidence has been sent to the district attorney, who will make a final decision on the charges to be filed,” Lt. Ken Whitman said.

Matthew Clark expressed relief Friday, saying, “I’m just concerned about some of the people in society who would do this kind of a thing.”

The abduction marked the second incident in less than a month in Orange County in which a teen-age girl has been accused of stealing a child. Dana Jennifer O’Hair has been charged with felony kidnaping in the March 5 abduction of a toddler from a Huntington Beach home.

Arrested in Home

Police arrested Johnson and her 17-year-old brother in their home Thursday evening. A neighbor reported seeing the teen-age girl playing with Victoria earlier in the day, according to police. The brother was being held Friday at Orange County Juvenile Hall.

Garden Grove police credited seven Explorer Scouts with helping them make the arrests. Several hours after the abduction, the Explorers were sent on a house-to-house search of the neighborhood near the day-care center, knocking on doors and showing people pictures of the abducted girl, as well as a sketch of a suspect, police said.

At 10:30 p.m., officers said, two of the Explorers knocked on the door of Linda Brickman, a neighbor who looked at the photos and said she had seen Johnson playing with the abducted girl earlier that day. Minutes later, police entered Johnson’s house, rescued the infant and arrested the girl and her brother, said Investigator Pam French.

“They (the Scouts) did an exceptional job . . . they were instrumental in finding the witness,” French said.

Police said the incident began when an unidentified woman entered the day-care center at 3 p.m. Thursday, ostensibly to register her child. When an employee speaking with the woman was called away, both the woman and the Clark infant disappeared, they said.

Debbie Clark said an employee at the center had told her the woman was concerned that she would not be a good mother, leaving the impression that she was separated from her own child.

Tells of Visit

Johnson, who was booked at the Orange County Jail on suspicion of kidnaping, said in the interview that she had gone to the day-care center to check out the possibility of enrolling her 14-month-old daughter. She refused to name the girl or say whether the infant lived with her.

In her version of events, Johnson said she had spoken to Diane Freed, a center employee, between 2:45 and 3:15 p.m. She said Freed had left for a few minutes and continued their conversation when she returned, without mentioning that a child was missing.

Freed denied that account.

Johnson said she went home about 4 p.m. and discovered the abducted baby in her room. For the next few hours, she, her brothers and some neighbors played with the child, Johnson said. At 11 p.m., police knocked down the door and took her into custody, she added.

Asked why someone would have abducted his daughter, Matthew Clark said, “She must have been very upset about something--that’s all I can say.”