Sex Offender Named as Suspect in Death of Placentia Girl, 14

Warren James Bland, a convicted sex offender charged with murder in the slaying of a 7-year-old South Pasadena girl, was identified Thursday as a suspect in the killing of Wendy Rachelle Osborn, 14, of Placentia, whose body was found Sunday.

A warrant for Bland’s arrest was issued Wednesday by Riverside County authorities in connection with the strangulation of Phoebe Ho, 7, whose body was found in a field in the Glen Avon area. The charge carries the death penalty.

Bland, 51, was questioned Jan. 3 by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies about Phoebe’s disappearance, but he was not arrested. He remains at large and may be driving a stolen 1970 light blue Toyota Corolla station wagon with license plate 314 ASU, authorities said.

After he was questioned and released, investigators said, Bland was linked to Phoebe’s killing through analysis of carpet fibers, paint chips and other evidence recovered from his home and van. He had been working as a house painter in the Alhambra area at the time.

‘Pretty Well Linked’

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Capt. Gene Rogers, who heads a task force of investigators from San Bernardino and Riverside counties working on the Osborn case, said Thursday that Bland is a suspect in the slaying of Wendy Osborn because “he is pretty well linked . . . with physical evidence” in the Phoebe Ho case and because of similarities between the two killings.

But Rogers stressed that “we’re not that far along yet” in the Osborn investigation and that Bland therefore is technically “wanted for questioning only.”

“We do not have as good physical evidence as they (Riverside authorities) do at this time,” Rogers said.

“We can’t list him as a prime (suspect), but he is one of several we are looking at,” Rogers said, adding: “There are others.”

Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Szeles said Thursday that on the same day Wendy’s body was discovered in the Chino Hills, Riverside and San Bernardino sheriff’s investigators “found that there was a likelihood it might be the same suspect.”

That assessment was based on “some similarities on the marks on the bodies” and similarities surrounding the disappearance of both girls, who are believed to have been abducted on their way to school, Szeles said.

Wendy’s body was found Sunday in the Chino Hills. The 5-foot, 3-inch, 93-pound girl had been sexually assaulted. She had been dead about 48 hours.

Autopsy results showed that she may have been alive for eight to 10 days after she was last seen Jan. 20 as she left for school.

Wendy’s father, Jack Osborn, called on the public Thursday to provide information that could lead to the arrest of his daughter’s killer and for contributions to a reward fund.

“We must capture her killer and put him in a place where he can no longer inflict the terrible wound he’s given to us and our daughter,” Osborn said at a press conference at the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center in Orange.

“This person is no threat to us,” Osborn said. “We have no more daughters to lose, but you do. There are hundreds . . . thousands of little girls at risk.”

Osborn also said that, contrary to information released earlier in the week, he believes that his daughter was not tortured before her death. He said that San Bernardino County Coroner Brian McCormick had released “incorrect information about her physical torture.”

Osborn left the press conference quickly after reading a prepared statement and without explaining what led him to that conclusion.

However, spokesmen for Placentia police and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the agencies investigating Wendy’s slaying, denied telling the girl’s father that Wendy had not been tortured.

“We have not let him view the body, and he does not have that information,” Rogers said.

On Monday, McCormick said that about 12 “pinching-type wounds,” perhaps inflicted with “pliers or a clamping-type device,” were found on Wendy’s torso. McCormick would not comment on the case Thursday.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff Department’s crime lab is continuing its own analysis of the autopsy findings, a department spokesman said.

Jack Osborn also urged the public to contribute to the Wendy Osborn Reward Fund established at First Interstate Bank, 1396 N. Rose Drive, Placentia, Calif. 92670.

So far, the fund has drawn about $400 in cash and $5,000 in pledges. The Placentia City Council is expected to approve a $10,000 contribution to the fund at its next meeting on Feb. 27, Placentia Police Capt. Walter Pichon said.

Placentia police have set up a telephone line to receive information on the case from the public. The number is (714) 993-8144.

Funeral services for Wendy have been rescheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Eastside Christian Church, 2505 E. Yorba Linda Blvd., Fullerton.

Jack Osborn said Thursday that he and his family have chosen to pity, rather than hate, Wendy’s killer because “we believe hatred will destroy us.”

“We refuse to allow this person who has taken so much from us to take any more,” he said.

Bland was sentenced to prison in 1969 for rape, kidnaping and burglary, after serving nearly seven years in confinement in state mental facilities. Court records show that he was classified at that time as a mentally disordered sex offender.

Bland was paroled in 1975 but was convicted a year later of kidnaping with intent to commit rape, a case that involved the abduction of an 11-year-old Long Beach girl.

“Mr. Bland is a dangerous repeater who poses a serious threat to females in our society,” Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael A. Hall advised the court in 1977. “He should be kept in prison a long time. This is the only way I can see to adequately protect society. Chances for (his) rehabilitation seem nil.”

On April 6, 1980, Bland was released on parole.

On Dec. 30, 1980, he kidnaped and sexually molested an 11-year-old Torrance boy, torturing the youth with wooden clothespins, needle-nose pliers and locking pliers, according to court records.

In that case, Bland was convicted of oral copulation and a lewd act on a child and sentenced on July 24, 1981, to nine years in prison. But on Jan. 20, 1986, he was paroled and moved to the Alhambra area.

Law enforcement investigators and the Riverside County coroner’s office have declined to comment on reports that there were pinch marks on Phoebe Ho’s body.

Times staff writer David Freed contributed to this story.