Slain Kidnap Suspect Linked to Second Case

A man suspected of kidnaping a 4-year-old girl from her Laurel Canyon home this week is believed to have tried unsuccessfully to kidnap another child in the same neighborhood about a week earlier, police said Friday.

Erez Bar-Levav, a 24-year-old Israeli suspected of abducting Deanna Jin from her home on Tianna Road, was shot to death by police after a wild car chase Thursday. The child was recovered by police and returned to her family.

Detective Louis Boozell said he found a note in the dead man’s pocket with the address of another family living in the Laurel Canyon area.

Boy Approached by Man

A boy at that address was approached about a week ago by a man who police have tentatively identified as Bar-Levav, officers said.

“We’re assuming it was the same guy,” Boozell said. “We think it probably was.”

Boozell said he concluded this after the boy’s family was interviewed by police. The family lives in the same neighborhood as the Jins but on a different street.

The boy’s mother, Boozell said, recalled that her son answered the doorbell about a week ago and a man attempted to lure him outside and into his car by “talking about Little League.”

Boozell said the mother intervened before her son got out the door. As the stranger drove off, the mother jotted down his license plate number. Boozell said it was “close” to the one on the car Bar-Levav was driving Friday when he was killed by police in a hail of gunfire after a high-speed chase.

Bar-Levav is believed to have abducted the Jin girl from her home Wednesday by posing as a real estate assessor and luring the child into his car--possibly by offering her a piece of jewelry.

He had demanded $20,000 ransom.

Bar-Levav arrived here from Israel about two years ago, Boozell said, and has traveled back and forth several times since then.