Missing Boy, Little Sister Brought Home

An 11-year-old boy and his 7-year-old sister who had been missing from their Anaheim home were returned safely Thursday, and the man they had been with for more than a week was taken into custody by police for questioning.

Michael Robert Cocco, 26, identified as a longtime family friend, telephoned the children’s grandparents in Anaheim from a Stanton motel room late Thursday, shortly after seeing photographs of the children on a television newscast, Placentia police said.

Cocco was apprehended by police outside the grandparents’ home as he returned the children. He was still being questioned by Placentia police late Thursday night. The children were also being questioned by police late Thursday.

The children were reluctant to talk after they arrived at their grandparents’ home, but the 11-year-old boy said they had stayed in a Stanton motel the entire week and that they had not been harmed.

“I’m fine,” the boy said. “He (Cocco) let us swim in the pool and play on the playground.”

The children were last seen about midnight on June 1 at the corner of Bastanchury Road and Placentia Avenue in Placentia, where their father had been stopped by police for making an illegal U-turn, then arrested on an outstanding warrant for a previous moving violation, according to Placentia Police Sgt. Russ Rice.

According to the childrens’ grandmother, Peggy Lopp, Cocco was with her son when he was stopped by police and the children were asleep in the back of the vehicle. She said her son, Rick, had told Cocco to call the childrens’ mother and tell her he was bringing them to their grandparents’ house in Anaheim but that Cocco never did.

“He (Rick) was bringing the children home after visiting friends in Riverside,” she said. “Rick asked Mike (Cocco) to bring the children over to our house since they had been staying with us for some time.”

The grandparents reported the children missing on June 4, and they became the subject of a widespread search in Orange County and Riverside, police said. Authorities had sought the public’s assistance to help find the children, and the family held a news conference Thursday morning at the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center in Orange, Sgt. Rice said.

Peggy Lopp said she received a telephone call from Cocco late Thursday saying the children had been with him and that they were safe. She said Cocco told her he had been staying in Stanton with the children and happened to watch a television news segment that showed their pictures.

“He said he didn’t know they had been reported missing and that they had been with him all this time. He said he was surprised to see their pictures on television. I immediately telephoned police,” she said.

The grandparents called Placentia police, who notified the Anaheim police. Authorities were at the family’s home when Cocco arrived.

Times staff writer Mark Boster contributed to this article.