Ohio Girl, 13, Found in Southland After 6-Year Search

A 13-year-old Ohio girl, the object of an FBI search since she disappeared in 1982, was found in a Huntington Beach apartment, where her grandfather was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping, authorities said Saturday.

The six-year search for Charity Freeman ended about 3 p.m. Friday when Huntington Beach detectives, acting on a tip from FBI agents, found her at the Huntington West Apartment Complex, Police Lt. John Foster said. When police knocked on the door, the teen-ager opened it, he said.

The girl’s disappearance gained national attention in June, 1985, when Lucas County sheriff’s deputies in Toledo, Ohio, received information that the grandfather, Leroy Freeman, was the leader of a Satanic cult in northern Ohio. That link was never confirmed.

“Thank goodness, this may finally be coming to an end,” said Victor J. Gonzalez, an attorney for the girl’s mother, Karen Creswell of Toledo. “It has been a long, long ordeal.”

Charity Freeman was placed in protective custody Friday night and flown Saturday to Ohio, where she was to be reunited with her mother. Leroy Freeman was held Saturday in Orange County Jail on suspicion of kidnaping and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Ohio authorities indicated they will seek to extradite Freeman, who allegedly abducted his granddaughter in September, 1982, in Toledo. Freeman and his daughter had apparently argued over the way Charity was being raised, Gonzalez said.

Since then, Charity and her grandfather reportedly lived a nomadic existence, traveling throughout the Southwest. They were seen in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. They were joined at times by Charity’s aunt, Julie Freeman, authorities said.

In 1985, Lucas County sheriff’s deputies were told that as many as 75 bodies, victims of a satanic group’s ritualistic ceremonies, were buried at a site outside Toledo. But no bodies were found when the area was excavated, although deputies did unearth several knives, pentagrams and a headless doll with its feet nailed to a board.

On Friday, when detectives identified themselves at the apartment in the 6400 block of Warner Avenue, Charity, her grandfather and aunt tried to flee, Foster said.

Foster said police found no evidence of occult activities. He said it appeared that Charity was not “being held captive,” and she was in “good physical shape.”

Ohio authorities tracked the girl to the West Coast after a car purchased last November in Toledo by Julie Freeman was recently repossessed in Huntington Beach. Julie Freeman was not arrested.