Student Dumped : Woman, 25, Abducted at Saddleback

A 25-year-old Saddleback College student was abducted from a campus parking lot in a Volkswagen van by two men who beat her over the head, stripped her, then dumped her naked onto a freeway, authorities said Friday.

Constance Carroll, president of the Mission Viejo campus of the college, said that security measures have been intensified since the abduction.

The woman apparently was held captive--although she reportedly was unconscious most of the time--for up to six hours before she was shoved out of the van early Thursday, a county Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Tests Not Completed

Lt. Dick Olson said the victim was treated and released from Mission Community Hospital for cuts and bruises on her head and bruises on other parts of her body. He said tests that might determine whether she was sexually assaulted have not been completed.

“We cannot confirm at this point whether or not she was raped,” Olson said. “She was unconscious so long she doesn’t remember.”

The woman, an El Toro resident, walked to her car in a campus parking about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. She entered the car but was pulled from it and into the Volkswagen van, Olson said.

“The next thing she knows, she’s being dragged from her car and hit with an unknown object,” Olson said. “She was knocked unconscious.”

The woman told investigators that she does not know what time it was when she finally awakened and found herself lying on the floor of the van, her hands and feet tied and her clothes torn off, Olson said.

One of the two men in the van was hitting her with some kind of object, Olson said, and then she said she heard the van’s engine started.

Eventually, the woman was untied and after driving for some time the men pushed her out the van’s sliding side door and threw her clothes out behind her, Olson added.

Dumped Near Avery Parkway

Authorities believe the woman was dumped at the Avery Parkway off-ramp of Interstate 5.

With some of her clothing draped over her and the rest of it clutched in her hands, the woman walked into a local restaurant, where employees phoned the Sheriff’s Department about 1:30 a.m. Thursday. Paramedics treated the woman and then took her to the hospital, where a girlfriend picked her up.

Olson said that the victim, who was staying with the girlfriend, is very disoriented, confused and upset. He said her doctor had recommended that she not be interviewed at any length until at least Friday, The results of that interview were not available.

She described one of the assailants as a 20-year-old male with short, wavy, dark hair. He was wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans. The other was described as a 40-year-old man, tall and thin, with gray hair. The victim did not remember what he was wearing.

Older, White Van

The van was an older, white camper with a bubble top and no license plates, Olson said, adding that investigators have contacted several recreational parks along the coast to keep a lookout for the vehicle.

The Mission Viejo campus (one of two Saddleback College campuses) is patrolled 24 hours a day by security officers, and since last fall, a dozen male students have been escorting female students from classes to the parking lots after dark, Carroll said.

“We immediately increased the escort service (staff) after this,” she said Friday.

Stressing that the college is extremely security-conscious, Carroll added that the campus lights are kept on even after the campus closes and during school breaks. Shrubbery also has been trimmed “to prevent there from being any hiding places on campus,” Carroll said.