Reported Abduction of Girl Spurs Search

MISSION VIEJO —  Two men were seen early Wednesday grabbing a young girl from the sidewalk outside a school playground, triggering an intense search even as investigators scrambled to identify the child.

Gardeners working outside the Marguerite Christian School told authorities that a girl between 8 and 10--dressed in pink with a backpack slung over her arm--was forced into a Cadillac by the men who sped off as the child screamed.

But as of late Wednesday, no parent had come forward to report a missing child, authorities said. The girl was too old to attend the parochial preschool, and a hasty head count at local schools throughout Mission Viejo turned up no missing students.

The mystery complicated the investigation and sparked a flurry of calls from worried parents to area schools.

“Most of the parents I spoke to today were extremely frantic,” said JoAnn Moothart, director of the nearby All Bright Pre-School. “We’re always in harm’s way, it seems, living in this society.”

The girl, described as having blond hair reaching the middle of her back, was grabbed between 8 and 8:20 a.m. at 26558 Marguerite Parkway, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson.

Witnesses reported that the Cadillac’s driver jumped out and pushed the girl into the passenger side, with a second man in the back seat pulling on the youngster’s shirt.

The incident on the perimeter of the preschool’s honeysuckle-lined playground was witnessed by three gardeners, Wilkerson said. One gardener was mowing the grass and he shouted for help, witnesses said.

“We’ve found a lot of rattlesnakes lately, so that’s what we thought it was when we heard the yelling,” said landscaper Ray Czajkowski, who also witnessed the incident.

Workers ran toward the car, but the driver sped off, heading west on Felipe Road, then north on Marguerite Parkway, Wilkerson said.

The car was described as a newer model, champagne-colored Cadillac with a white roof, tinted windows and chrome spikes on the hubcaps. A frame around the license place mentioned Long Beach and the second and third characters in the license plate were believed to be “BL,” witnesses reported.

Both men were described as African American. The driver was in his 40s, about 6 feet tall, had a mustache and goatee and was wearing a blue shirt, witnesses told police.

Investigators were unable to locate the car Wednesday and wondered if the child might be from out of town.

“She could have been visiting someone in the area temporarily,” Wilkerson said. “We’re working on that.”

Authorities have no reason to doubt the witness accounts, he said.

By early afternoon, both the Capistrano Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified school districts reported that all students were in class or absent but accounted for. A dozen local private schools contacted Wednesday also reported no missing students.

Investigators said they would begin backtracking through excused school absences in an attempt to screen for the girl’s identity. A parent or person posing as a parent may have called in the absence if the child was taken in a custody dispute or family crisis, Wilkerson said.

Also in Orange County, Fountain Valley Police were searching for a man who kidnapped a 17-year-old at knifepoint Tuesday, forced her into his truck and then robbed and fondled her before releasing the teenager uninjured.

The assailant was described as a man with a “very tanned complexion,” 6 feet tall, stocky, in his late 30s or early 40s and with straight black hair and a mustache. His left ear had either a slit or a piece missing, police said.

Times staff writers Michael Granberry and David Reyes contributed to this story.