Police Seek Help Finding Girl Feared Abducted in S. Pasadena

The South Pasadena police force, enlisting the help of firefighters, other law agencies and some volunteers, mounted a major search Friday for a 7-year-old Chinese girl who was apparently abducted during her routine four-block walk to school on Thursday.

But the police, after 32 fruitless hours hunting for clues, announced at nightfall that they would scale back their hunt for Phoebe Hue-Ru Ho, a 3-foot, 10-inch, 40-pound second-grader at Arroyo Vista School.

“Now we’re going to rely on any leads that the public can bring to us,” Police Cmdr. Mike Ward said. “We conducted an extremely thorough search. That, coupled with the fact there is no reason in the world she would think of running away and that there are no problems in her family, makes us think she was probably abducted.”

The search began Thursday at about 5:45 p.m. after Kenneth and Sharon Ho notified police that their daughter was missing. It was later determined that she never made it to school and and was last seen at about 7:55 a.m. on El Centro Avenue, midway between her home and the school.

More than 2,000 flyers were circulated seeking help in finding the girl. She has black hair and brown eyes, two missing front teeth and a scar on her chin. She had dressed for school in a bright red jacket with green sleeves, yellow sweat shirt, pink pants and white tennis shoes with blue stripes.

Setting up a command post at the elementary school, the 30-member South Pasadena Police Department called in off-duty and vacationing officers to join in the search. Overall, about 45 people looked for the girl, including city firefighters and paramedics, police Explorers, an animal control officer, a dispatcher and several seniors from nearby South Pasadena High School.

The night before, the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team searched the brush-covered arroyos, a task that was repeated by volunteers in daylight. A dog handler and his bloodhound affiliated with the Sheriff’s Department assisted in the hunt.

Searchers also were assisted by a Chinese-speaking police officer from Monterey Park who interviewed the girl’s parents, who had immigrated from Taiwan in early 1983.

Reporters gathered at Kenneth and Sharon Ho’s home, where the mother made her anxious appeal for help. The Hos told reporters that after sending their daughter to school Thursday morning, they spent the day shopping for wholesale items to sell at swap meets. Their 12-year-old son, Damon, said Phoebe was looking forward to a cupcake sale at school that day. Although she sometimes walks to school with him, he said, she walked alone Thursday. He rode his bike because he was late.

“I like everybody to help me find my missing child,” the mother said in halting English. “I hope she’ll come home soon.”

Lana Ho, Phoebe’s 8-year-old cousin who lives nearby, said she saw the girl about two blocks from the school. “She was alone. I said ‘Hi’ and when the bell rang, I ran to school,” she said. “But Phoebe kept walking behind.”

The parents said they arrived home about 5 p.m. and called police when they realized their daughter was missing.

At the elementary school, officers questioned the girl’s classmates, some of whom told conflicting stories of seeing the child during recess or witnessing the child’s abduction. Although some stories early in the day raised hopes that Phoebe had visited the playground but otherwise was in hiding, Ward said detectives ultimately concluded that the children’s tales had been concocted through partial information, rumor and their own imagination.

Several parents, reacting to the news Thursday night that a child was missing, delivered their children to school Friday and returned to pick them up.

“No, I don’t normally do this,” Beverly Bevel said after driving up to the school. “You think you’re in a safe neighborhood. . . . It’s frightening.”