Police Seeking Girl Believed to Be Kidnaped

A 12-year-old girl and her suspected abductor were being sought Monday in what Los Angeles police called “an all-out search” after officers decided that she was a possible kidnap victim rather than a runaway.

April Lockwood, described by a schoolmate as “acting very scared,” was last seen late Friday afternoon getting into a gray 1975-79 AMC Pacer driven by a black youth.

The girl’s father, Lance Lockwood, said that although the original investigating officer had concluded that she had gone with the youth on her own volition, he was convinced from the beginning that his daughter “did not go voluntarily.”

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Don Lawrence said several two-man patrol car units and at least four detectives from the 77th Street Division are at work on the case.

“I’m pleased that the police have changed (the case) from runaway to kidnaping,” Lockwood said. “I believe she is being held out there somewhere against her will.”

Lockwood described his daughter, who also is black, as 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds, with loose black shoulder-length hair. She was wearing a white pantsuit accented with splashes of brown and pink. He said she appears older and more mature than her actual age.

“She does not date,” he said. “She doesn’t have boyfriends and she is very responsible . . . knows all the things she should and should not do.”

The suspected kidnaper was described as 14 to 19 years of age; about 5 feet, 9 inches tall; 160 pounds, and wearing black pants, white sweater, white tennis shoes, gold nugget rings on one hand and gold chains around his neck.

Lockwood said the youth approached his daughter and a 13-year-old friend as they walked on West Street and asked them for directions. The youth bought both girls hamburgers at a nearby restaurant on Crenshaw Boulevard, then offered them a ride home. The older girl declined, but April accepted.

Later, the father said, the friend came to the Lockwood home at in the 3600 block of West 62nd Street to return April’s book bag. There she saw April sitting in the car with the youth across the street. The friend said April got out, approached her and took the book bag, then went back to the car.

“She (the friend) said April was acting very scared . . . shaking and crying,” Lockwood said. “The friend tried to talk to her, (but) she seemed in an awful hurry and rushed back to the car.”

Lockwood said he believes that “that guy had threatened her and probably had a gun trained on her.”