Police Lack Strong Leads in Hunt for 7-Year-Old Girl

As the hunt continued Saturday for a 7-year-old girl who has been missing since Thursday morning, agonized family members, neighbors and classmates gathered at her South Pasadena home, praying for her safe return.

Saturday evening, South Pasadena police said they still had no strong leads in the disappearance of Phoebe Hue-Ru Ho. The 3-foot, 10-inch, 40-pound second-grader was apparently abducted Thursday morning as she walked from her home to Arroyo Vista School four blocks away.

“We hope that she’s alive and that someone have her and take good care of her,” said the girl’s aunt, Ruth Kau. “We hope that whoever took her return her to us because we miss her very much.”

At the missing girl’s home, relatives and friends sat in the small living room consoling Phoebe’s distraught father, Kenneth Ho, who brought his family from Taiwan in 1983. The girl’s mother, Sharon, and 14-year-old sister, Jennifer, left the house Saturday morning to circulate and post flyers in Chinese and English that seek help in finding the girl.

Throughout the day, neighbors and parents of Phoebe’s classmates stopped by the house. They brought baskets of food and words of encouragement. They gathered on the front walk where they expressed dismay and fear. Some went inside and cried with the family.

“None of us really know what to do. We just want them to know that we care,” said Donna Golden, a member of the school’s PTA.

“It’s a very family oriented community, and we’ve always felt quite secure here,” Golden said. Phoebe’s disappearance destroyed that sense of security, she said.

Phoebe, who has black hair, brown eyes, two missing front teeth and a scar on her chin, was dressed in a bright red jacket with green sleeves, yellow sweat shirt, pink pants and white tennis shoes with blue stripes when she left for school Thursday morning.

Her 8-year-old cousin, Lana Ho, said she saw Phoebe two blocks from school about 7:55 a.m., but school officials said she never arrived.

Police, firefighters and volunteers started a major search Thursday evening after Phoebe was reported missing by her parents. Thousands of flyers were posted, and searchers conducted a door-to-door search in a square-mile area around the home. Police set up four separate roadblocks around the school and asked motorists if they had seen the girl. Police dogs combed the area.

Thirty-two hours after the search began, police said they had been unable to find any clues to Phoebe’s whereabouts, and they scaled back the hunt.

Phoebe’s parents have said they know of no reason why their daughter--described as “gregarious,” “optimistic” and “always smiling”--would run away, and they said there was no hint that she had problems with any of her classmates. Police assume she was abducted.

On Saturday, five detectives were assigned to investigate leads and reported sightings, said Lt. Joyce Ezzell, the detective in charge of the search. Lt. Doug Brown said police have been inundated by telephone calls about the girl and have investigated reported sightings as far away as Orange County. By Saturday afternoon, more than 3,500 flyers had been circulated throughout the San Gabriel Valley and Glendale area, police said.

“We’re following up on leads, but we haven’t come up with anything yet,” Ezzell said.