Missing Los Angeles girl found alive (CNN)
Abduction: Police say child, 4, was not physically harmed, and suspect has no history of run-ins with the law.(LA TIMES)
Missing Los Angeles girl found unharmed at medical clinic (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE)

Missing Los Angeles girl found alive
August 14, 2002 Posted: 4:32 AM EDT (0832 GMT)

A woman is taken into custody at the Los Angeles clinic where Jessica Cortez was found Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Police found missing 4-year-old Jessica Cortez alive Tuesday evening, two days after she disappeared from a neighborhood park, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

She "appears to be OK," said officer Jason Lee.

The girl was brought into the St. John's Well Child Center, a non-profit health care clinic in Los Angeles, by a well-dressed woman with long hair, said Jim Mangia, executive director of the clinic. Lee said the woman has been detained for questioning.

The staff recognized the girl and called police, all the while trying to keep the woman and child from leaving.

"We were crying in joy and we were so relieved and thankful that we were able to save her life," Mangia said. "We're just crying from happiness. We're just so grateful that she came in here."

Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn said Jessica was reunited with her mother at the clinic.

LAPD Interim Chief Martin Pomeroy said Jessica's curly brown hair had been cut and she was in different clothes than she was wearing when she disappeared on Sunday. She was slightly disheveled.

"She said that she didn't think she was pretty any more," but detectives quickly assured Jessica that was not the case, Pomeroy said.

"The mother, as you might expect, was weeping hysterically and little Jessica threw her arms around her mother and began to laugh hysterically, and then after a few minutes she also began to weep," he said.

"The child clung to the mother, continued to cling to the mother during our interview, and at last report was still holding on to her mother's hand."

Investigation just beginning

The unidentified woman who brought the girl to the clinic was later seen being led away by police in handcuffs.

"We're still trying to determine for certainty if that woman is a witness only or might be a suspect herself," said Pomeroy.

Pomeroy said investigators still are searching for the man, depicted on missing posters, whom witnesses reported seeing with Jessica before she disappeared.

"We are still looking for the suspect in the sketch with the understanding that the investigation may turn in a different direction tomorrow morning," he added.

The $45,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect still is in effect.

"This begins, really, the investigation. We want to make certain that whomever is the suspect that they never, ever do this to one of our children again," said Pomeroy. "We won't rest until that person is in custody."

Pomeroy thanked the community and the media for mobilizing to find the girl.

"I have to believe that the great effort that went into looking for Jessica, as reported by the media, had some influence on those who held her," he said. "They just didn't want to face what they knew was coming, so they turned her back."

The FBI is still on the case.

"We still have a suspect out there," said FBI agent Richard Garcia. "We still need your help, we still need your information, we still need you to call in."

Prayer vigil turns to celebration

Neighbors who had gathered at the park expecting to hold a prayer vigil later in the evening cheered, clapped, and whistled with joy when the news broke of Jessica's rescue.

Jessica, reunited with her father, smiles Tuesday night.
"Gracias, senor, gracias!" yelled one man to the police nearby. Another shouted, "All right, Jessica!"

Jessica had been at Echo Park with her family Sunday evening when her parents reported her missing. Police sent divers into the park's lake when the girl's 5-year-old brother said his sister may have fallen into the dark, murky water.

Though they had no evidence of an abduction, police canvassed the neighborhood and continued to search the area.

Late Monday, witnesses reported seeing a man taking Jessica out of the park, and police compiled a sketch based on the man's description.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles City lifeguards, the Los Angeles Fire Department and the FBI assisted police in the investigation.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Jose Perez said Jessica's family did not recognize a composite drawing of the initial male suspect, who was described as 20 to 25 years old, between 5 feet, 8 inches and 6-feet-tall, 160 to 180 pounds, wearing blue shorts and a white T-shirt, with a cross tattoo on his lower left leg and a dark complexion.

Perez said area residents said they had seen the man in the park on other occasions, sometimes with a Chihuahua dog. Pomeroy said more than 100 clues were being actively investigated and more than 300 officers were on the case.

After an initial sputter over how to classify the investigation, police activated the newly initiated "Amber Alert" system -- which proved successful in its first use last week, helping authorities locate two kidnapped teenage girls. The man who abducted them was shot to death by police officers.

During an "Amber Alert," California uses its emergency alert system to quickly distribute information on radio, television, the Internet and electronic traffic signs when a child under 18 is missing. Perez said traffic signs had not been activated in this case because there was no description of a vehicle.

The Amber Alert was created in response to the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in 1996 and later killed.

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Abduction: Police say child, 4, was not physically harmed, and suspect has no history of run-ins with the law.
From Times Staff and Wire Reports Los Angeles police say they still are not sure why a woman now in custody for kidnapping Jessica Cortez took the 4-year-old from Echo Park and kept her for two days.

"The motive remains a bit hazy right now," acting L.A. Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said. "We're not sure why this woman did what she did."

Jessica and the woman walked into an Exposition Park clinic on Tuesday, almost two days after the girl disappeared and was presumed drowned in Echo Park Lake. Clinic workers called police and stalled the woman until officers arrived.

Police arrested the woman, Patricia Cornejo, 34, on suspicion of kidnapping, but offered no motive. "There are no accomplices," LAPD Lt. Don Hartwell said.

Pomeroy said today that Cornejo, a mother of four children, has had no major run-ins with police and has no record with child services authorities.

Jessica apparently spent the entire time of her disappearance since Sunday in the woman's home and was not physically harmed in any way, Pomeroy said.

"I don't believe there was great force used and perhaps nothing more complicated than this woman held hands with Jessica and walked her out of the park. ... She's a very friendly and outgoing girl and perhaps that's the reason why she went with this woman," Pomeroy said.

Police said Cornejo is the mother of two girls and two boys. The girls, ages 4 and 10, were placed in protective custody. The boys, ages 14 and 8, live separately with their father, Pomeroy said.

The rescue marked the latest in a number of high-profile kidnappings this year that have prompted fear throughout Southern California this year, beginning with the kidnapping and death in February of Danielle van Dam, followed by the molestation and murder of Samantha Runnion in July in Orange County and most recently the abduction of two teenagers in the Antelope Valley.

Police Tuesday evening executed search warrants at two Los Angeles locations. Using a battering ram, they broke into an apartment south of downtown Los Angeles in a search they said was related to Jessica's disappearance. No arrests were made. Sometime later, in a search of another home, on 91st Street, two men were detained for questioning.

Jim Mangia, executive director of the St. John's Well Child Center just off the 110 Freeway at West Adams Boulevard, said that a well-dressed woman had come into the clinic with Jessica just after 4:30 p.m.

The girl seemed disoriented and confused and did not speak, he said.

She was dressed differently than when she disappeared, police said. According to clinic workers, she was wearing a pair of dark-green shorts and a white T-shirt. Her hair was cut haphazardly, Mangia said.

The woman requested an examination for the girl, but would not identify their relationship, causing the staff to become suspicious.

The woman would not fill out forms asking for Jessica's date of birth, Mangia said. And clinic workers thought they recognized the girl.

Anxious that the woman might leave, Mangia ordered a nurse to conduct a lengthy exam in order to hold the girl as long as possible.

"We were not going to let her leave with the child," Mangia said.

While the woman was in a bathroom, a nurse asked the girl her name.

"She said, 'My name is Jessica,' " Mangia said.

The girl then told the nurse that the woman was not her mother.

What followed was a tense episode in which staff members took positions to block the woman's exit. Staffers had been following the case on television, Mangia said. Police arrived and took the woman into custody.

Surrounded by several hundred jubilant onlookers, Pomeroy announced the girl's safe recovery.

"We wanted so badly to find Jessica. Sometimes these things end in bad results that break our hearts, so we are glad that this search lifted our spirits," he said.

"We won't rest" until those involved are in custody, Pomeroy said.

News that Jessica was alive was greeted with cheers of relief by a crowd of people who had gathered at Echo Park Lake, where the girl had vanished Sunday evening and police had set up a command post to direct the search.

Some in the crowd began chanting the girl's name.

On her knees, hands clasped in prayer, an emotional Maria Mendoza turned to police officers and said, "Mission accomplished."

"I knew she was alive," Mendoza said. "I had great faith in God."

Another Echo Park resident, Maria Manzanero, said, "We prayed hard, and maybe our prayers sent fear to her abductor."

Jessica's mother, Maria Hernandez, "cried hysterically" when the two were united, according to Pomeroy. The girl laughed, then cried, he said.

The girl "clung to her mother," Pomeroy said, and "she continued to cling to her mother and, as of last report, is still clinging to her mother."

The family returned home late Tuesday night, where Jessica's father, Rafael Cortez, said she "told us she cried when they cut her hair." He said she had not been mistreated. Asked what she had eaten, Jessica said "cornflakes."

Earlier in the day, hundreds of police officers had fanned out across northeast Los Angeles, and divers continued to search murky Echo Park Lake as efforts to find the girl stretched into a third day.

The mood was somber and neighbors were increasingly pessimistic as the hours wore on. Investigators had so little to go on that late in the day, they were carrying out two investigations at the same time — one of a possible drowning, the other of a possible kidnapping.

The drama had begun Sunday evening when Jessica's parents, Rafael Cortez and Maria Hernandez, lost sight of her at about 7:30 p.m.

Early leads — mainly the account of her 5-year-old brother — pointed investigators toward a drowning. But Monday, new information suggested Jessica had been lured away by an abductor.

The LAPD then circulated a composite sketch of a suspect, described as a dark-skinned male with a cross tattooed on his left leg. The man had a Chihuahua, and was with a little girl, they said.

The alert triggered scores of tips from the public and generated considerable public interest.

Pomeroy suggested that media attention may have "persuaded Jessica's abductors that they needed to take some action to extricate themselves."

Jessica's parents, who are taco vendors near Echo Park, have frequented the lake for several years, often parking their cart at the north end of the lake, said family friend Fernanda Leon. They are from Mexico.

But they have been beset by tragedy since their arrival, having lost a young daughter to an accident two years earlier. Police declined to give details.

Besides Jessica, the couple have three other children, ages 11 months, 2 and 5.

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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Missing Los Angeles girl found unharmed at medical clinic

(08-14) 11:07 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A 4-year-old girl who disappeared from a city park during the weekend was reunited with her parents after police arrested a woman who brought her to a medical clinic. Police said they were struggling to determine a motive. Patricia Cornejo, 34, who accompanied Jessica Cortez to the clinic was booked for investigation of kidnapping after clinic staff recognized Jessica on Tuesday and called police. The girl's photo was widely publicized after she vanished from Echo Park on Sunday. Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said Wednesday that Cornejo, a mother of four children, has had no major run-ins with police and has no record with child services authorities. Jessica apparently spent the entire time of her disappearance in the woman's home and was not physically harmed in any way, Pomeroy said. "I don't believe there was great force used and perhaps nothing more complicated than this woman held hands with Jessica and walked her out of the park. ... She's a very friendly and outgoing girl and perhaps that's the reason why she went with this woman," Pomeroy said. She was dirty, barefoot and had her hair cut short when she was found. Cornejo took Jessica to the clinic because the girl complained of a sore throat, police said. "The motive remains a bit hazy right now," Pomeroy said. "We're not sure why this woman did what she did." Police said Cornejo is the mother of two girls and two boys. The girls, ages 4 and 10, were placed in protective custody. The boys, ages 14 and 8, live separately with their father, Pomeroy said. Jessica's reunion with her parents on Tuesday was joyous, the chief said. "The mother, as you might expect, was weeping hysterically and little Jessica threw her arms around her mother and began to laugh hysterically," Pomeroy said. "We think it will be a long time before they let go of one another." Jessica was found shortly after 5 p.m. at St. John's Well Child Center. The clinic, in a beige, nondescript building near the University of Southern California, provides free medical care to children. Jim Mangia, the center's executive director, said Jessica was brought into the clinic by a well-dressed woman in sunglasses and nice clothes who refused to sign the clinic's forms and wrote that the child's name was Maria Ortiz. The clinic's receptionist immediately recognized Jessica who was wearing shorts and no shoes. When the woman went to the bathroom, clinic staff questioned Jessica. "We went in and spoke to Jessica, asked her name, she said it was Jessica -- the woman had signed in a different name -- and then we asked her if that woman was her mom and she said no ... all the time we were waiting for the police," Mangia said. "We assumed that she was a kidnapper given how she was acting," he added. Jessica was transferred to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center late Tuesday night after being examined at Childrens Hospital, then sent home with her parents. Police and a hospital official said she was unhurt. "She appears to be in good condition," said Childrens Hospital spokesman Steve Rutledge. Pomeroy said Jessica also appeared in good spirits, although she expressed some concern to detectives that her pretty hair had been cut. He added that the detectives assured her she still looked fine. Authorities were still looking for a man who was spotted talking with Jessica at the park before she was kidnapped Sunday. A flier was released Monday with a description of the man but police now say that the man is not considered a suspect. Police divers had scoured Echo Park lake for more than two days, believing the girl may have drown. Hundreds of detectives also went door to door throughout the neighborhood in search of clues to her whereabouts. Cheers rang out through the park Tuesday afternoon when Mayor James K. Hahn announced, "Little Jessica's been found!" Bells at a nearby church sounded a celebration and people in the park just northeast of downtown cried and embraced. "I didn't know her but I have goose bumps. I'm just so happy," said Maria Ramirez, wrapping her arms around her 7-year-old granddaughter. Rafael Cortez, the girl's father, and Maria Hernandez, her mother, sell tacos from a small stand across the street. Witnesses said they often let their three children -- Jessica, a 5-year-old brother, and a younger sister -- play unattended in the park. Another daughter recently died in what police Lt. Jose Perez described only as "an accident with a venetian blind." On Sunday night, Jessica's disappearance was classified as an abduction, and an Amber Alert was issued. That was rescinded after her brother told police he thought he saw Jessica's dress in the water. The Amber Alert was reactivated Monday night when police concluded she had been abducted. Amber Alerts, using news media and such systems as electronic highway signs to get word out about abductions, are named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a Texas girl who was kidnapped in 1996 and later found dead.
Associated Press Writer Laura Wides contributed to this report.

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