Mother of kidnapped boy, 3, pleads for his return

The mother of a kidnapped 3-year-old boy made a desperate plea for his release Tuesday before draping herself over his picture and sobbing.

“Please, I am asking them to release my son and give him back to me,” a distraught Maria Rosalina Millan implored in Spanish during a news conference at the San Bernardino County sheriff’s station. “He doesn’t owe anything. I don’t owe anything. He’s a good boy.”

Investigators remain baffled over the motive behind the child’s abduction, which happened during an armed robbery Sunday at Millan’s San Bernardino home. More than 80 tips have poured in from Tijuana to Northern California, but so far detectives have not heard from the kidnappers.

“Every second that goes by for us is critical,” said Det. Sgt. Douglas Hubbard, lead investigator on the case. “But we are remaining positive and investigating it as if we just went on scene.”

Deputies also asked the news media to stay away from the home, fearing that they might scare off kidnappers wishing to make contact with the family.

Authorities say Briant Rodriguez was taken after two armed men burst into Millan’s home about 2:30 p.m. Sunday. They tied up Millan and her five children and ransacked the home.

The suspects, described as light-skinned Latinos, allegedly spent about 20 minutes searching the house before taking money and a pair of cellphones but leaving behind a big-screen television and other valuables. Millan said they grabbed her boy and said they were taking him to Mexico to kill him.

After they left, Millan’s 8-year-old son got loose and ran to a neighbor’s house, where 911 was called.

The case is difficult, authorities say, because random kidnappings are so rare.

“In my 20-year career, this is the first time I have experienced a home invasion robbery that has resulted in a kidnapping,” Hubbard said.

He said the suspects were clearly searching for something.

“They came to that house for a purpose and what that was we don’t know,” he said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops said that so far no ransom or other money has been demanded in exchange for the boy. He also said the parents are not now suspects.

The FBI, the Border Patrol and the California Highway Patrol are involved in the hunt for Briant. An Amber Alert was issued Monday.

Millan’s house on Pedley Road sits across from Monterey Elementary School in a run-down neighborhood just a few blocks from the Sheriff’s Department. The house was quiet Tuesday morning.

Millan and her husband, who deputies say are cooperating, spent most of Tuesday with a sketch artist who made composite drawings of the suspects. Both are thin; one is thought to be 18 and the other about 24.

The brown-haired, brown-eyed boy weighs about 40 pounds, stands 3 feet tall and was wearing a yellow shirt with blue sleeves, blue striped shorts and black sandals when kidnapped.

At the news conference, deputies posted the sketches beside a photo of Briant. Millan, clutching her son’s blue T-shirt, immediately broke down.

“If anyone sees my boy, call the police quickly. I need you to help me find my boy,” she said. “Maybe they cut his hair, but his face would not change.”

Grabbing at his photo she cried out, “My boy, my life! My boy, my life!”

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david.kelly@latimes.com