By Jon Wiener
Police are still searching for leads in an attempted kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl on the 200 block of Mariposa Avenue. Despite a whirlwind of press coverage and community outreach, the department has yet to identify either a suspect or any witnesses in the afternoon attack.
According to police spokesperson Jim Bennett, the Mountain View department has been in contact with other agencies in an effort to follow up on potential connections, but so far has come up empty in investigating the Feb. 1 incident.
“Officers continue to patrol the area looking for the suspect or anyone with information about the suspect,” said Bennett.
With no suspect in custody, many families are concerned about the safety of their children. In response, police have undertaken a large outreach effort, while schools have sent information home with students.
“People are just asking questions in terms of why is this happening and what are the police doing,” said Oscar Garcia, community activist and founder of Mesa de La Comunidad.
The case has a number of similarities to a September 2001 report of an attempted kidnapping that turned out to be false. In that instance, the 13-year old girl didn’t recant her story until a year and a half later, when she admitted that she was trying to get her parents to give her rides home from school.
The suspect in the current case is described as a Hispanic man in his 30s, just over 5 feet tall, 140 to 160 pounds, with a mustache and black hair. He was wearing a black T-shirt with white lettering on the front, and had a Spanish accent.
The suspect’s vehicle is described as a 1990s yellow four-door. All four side windows were tinted, the driver’s-side door had a 6-inch-long scratch, there were Mexican flag seat covers on both front seats and a Chihuahua dog bobble head on the dashboard.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener
