Burbank Girl ‘Carries Flag’ for Host of Lost Children

Rosemary Bonilla sees photographs of her daughter on billboards, shopping bags and cold-drink cups all over Los Angeles. Her child, she says, “has carried the flag for all missing children.”

The girl, Monica Judith Bonilla, 7, was one of the first two children to be pictured on Alta-Dena milk cartons in January in a statewide campaign to find missing children. She was depicted along with Doria Yarbrough, a 13-year-old who had run away from home.

The teen-ager was reunited with her parents a few days after her picture appeared. Monica is still missing.

That sets her apart from most of the 4,000 children reported missing each year in Los Angeles County. All but 150 return home within 30 days, according to the the Sheriff’s Department, which earlier this year started its own program to distribute the photographs of missing children.

Of those who don’t return, fewer than 1% are kidnaped by strangers. About 80% are runaways. Most of the rest are taken by parents vying for custody of their children.

Possibly Taken by Father

In that respect, Monica is typical. According to police, she is believed to have been taken by her father from her Burbank home in September, 1982.

The faces of 20 children have appeared on the products and ads of about 150 California businesses in the statewide program, which was begun by Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles). Six of the children have been found, state officials say.

Sheriff’s Department officials say their program has located eight children.

The pictures have appeared on billboards, mail trucks, buses and drink cups at fast-food stands. They will soon be seen on egg cartons and pizza boxes.

Rosemary Bonilla characterized her ex-husband, Guillermo Ruiz Bonilla, 38, as a troubled and obsessive man who for a time dressed and tried to imitate slain singer John Lennon. He took Monica after his wife told him she wanted a divorce, police said.

Authorities have issued a warrant for Guillermo Bonilla’s arrest. Although they received hundreds of leads, sheriff’s investigator Galen Sabean said, they do not have a good idea of the whereabouts of him or Monica.

“It’s almost sure that they are not living in the country,” said David Lara, supervising investigator for the child abduction unit of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “But we keep the picture going in hopes that someone in the States may have seen her.”

Mother Looks at Other Children

Rosemary Bonilla continues her own search.

“Whenever I drive by a private school, I look around to see if I can see her,” Bonilla, a court interpeter, said. “And whenever a class on a field trip comes to visit the courthouse, I look closely at all the kids.”

On top of the television in Bonilla’s living room is a family portrait, taken in late 1980, of Rosemary Bonilla, her ex-husband and Monica, who is wearing a fluffy white dress. The family is smiling, but Rosemary Bonilla said it was anything but harmonious.

She said she and her husband fought continually, and that the relationship worsened after the 1980 assassination of Lennon.

“My ex-husband cried for two weeks non-stop after Lennon was killed,” Bonilla said. “He was rather hefty, and he went on a fast to lose weight. His hair was real short, and he just let it grow, along with his beard. He bought books so that he could teach himself the guitar.

‘Told Me He Was John Lennon’

“One morning, he turned to me and told me that he was John Lennon. He told me he wanted me to become Yoko Ono. He said Lennon had the nerve to stand up against the world, and he did it his way.”

Several months later, Bonilla told her husband that she wanted a divorce. On Sept. 22, 1982, she said, she returned home from work to find the house wrecked.

Wedding Picture Slashed

“All the furniture was gone, our wedding picture had been slashed, the two dolls which had been on top of the wedding cake had been decapitated, and Monica was gone,” Bonilla said, her voice trembling.

The next day, she said, she received a call from one of her in-laws who told her that she would never see Monica again.

“The caller said that they had told Monica that I was dead.”

Burbank police would not investigate because the father was still a legal guardian of the child, Police Chief Glen Bell said. The state Legislature last year made it a felony for one parent to steal a child from the other. Rosemary Bonilla now has legal custody of the child.

Monica became the first missing child pictured when the district attorney’s office recommended her case to Assemblyman Davis.

“I was really numb when I saw this big poster with Monica’s picture at a press conference Gray Davis had to start the program,” Bonilla said. “Normally it would be something to be proud of, but it’s nothing to be proud of. It’s the picture of someone they’re looking for. It’s very sad.”