Sex Offender in Custody Is Suspect in Slaying of Girl

A 33-year-old convicted sex offender in custody on an alleged parole violation was identified by authorities Tuesday as a suspect in the kidnaping and murder of 8-year-old Sylvia Elaine Mangos of Twentynine Palms.

Clifton Eugene Mitchell, a truck driver from the desert community of Pioneertown, was linked to the murder by physical evidence found in a car he was driving on the day the girl was abducted from a Yucca Valley swap meet, San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell said at a press conference. Pioneertown is about five miles northwest of Yucca Valley.

Tidwell said no charges have been filed against Mitchell in the murder, but added, “He is our only suspect at this point. . . . We believe that he acted alone.”

“It appears that the motive for this tragic case was sexual. . . . Sylvia was apparently a random victim of opportunity,” the sheriff said.

Tidwell said that Sylvia, a third-grade student at Twentynine Palms Elementary School, was apparently killed “several days” before her fully clothed body was discovered on April 5 beside a dirt road in the desert, about 23 miles northwest of the swap meet site.

It is believed she had been sexually molested and died from “several blows to the head,” Tidwell said. A murder weapon has not been found, he said.

Mitchell, was taken into custody on April 7 at the request of his parole officer for alleged “narcotics usage.” Mitchell’s statements to sheriff’s investigators contained inconsistencies about his activities around the time the girl disappeared, Tidwell said. Mitchell was paroled 18 months ago after serving 1 1/2 years of a three-year sentence for one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 14.

State Department of Corrections officials said that Mitchell was one of several registered sex offenders living in the high-desert area of San Bernardino County that sheriff’s investigators have interviewed in recent days.

Mitchell’s 1985 conviction in Orange County Superior Court came after he was charged with four counts resulting from a series of sexual incidents over a three-year period with a girl who was 13 when the incidents began, state regional parole office spokesman Harold White said.

White said that Mitchell, who was living in Orange at the time, “did not use force in any of this activity.”

Mitchell was paroled on Sept. 9, 1986, after he reduced his sentence under a work-credit program, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Christine May said.

Mitchell was considered for discharge from parole in September, 1987, but “because of the seriousness of the offense and because of marital problems he was having at the time, we recommended that he be retained on parole,” White said. “We weren’t sure what effect the marital problems would have on him.”

White said Mitchell had previous convictions, in 1974, for second-degree burglary, grand theft and auto theft. White also said Mitchell served in the Marine Corps from 1972 to 1974, when he was released from military service on an undesirable discharge.

Sheriff’s investigators have seized the 1983 blue Honda Prelude that Mitchell, who worked as a truck driver in the Los Angeles area, was seen driving in the vicinity of the swap meet when Sylvia disappeared on March 27, Tidwell said. That car, which was registered to Mitchell’s mother, was one of three vehicles belonging to the Mitc1751477356said.

“Preliminary examination of the vehicle has revealed physical evidence that we believe will prove that the victim was abducted in that car,” Tidwell said. He added that it was highly possible that Sylvia died in the car.

Tidwell said that in addition to physical evidence, “We’ve got some folks who think they saw him in certain places at critical times.”

Tidwell said the investigation will continue and that he expects to turn the case over to the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office for prosecution within a week.