Hunt for 3-Year-Old and Father Goes On, but Not Door-to-Door

An intense door-to-door search for a 3-year-old who vanished from his Southeast San Diego apartment was called off Friday, but authorities are still searching for the boy and his father, a police spokesman said.

Kris Lehmann disappeared from his mother’s apartment in the 3800 block of 47th Street at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The blond boy was wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and socks without shoes.

Police questioned his father, Michael Lehmann, 37, Wednesday night, but, when they attempted to contact him the next day, he had disappeared, according to Sgt. Dennis Johnson, who organized the door-to-door search.

“The mother suspects the papa, and I’m not saying detectives don’t have the same suspicions,” police spokesman Dave Cohen said.

On Thursday night, about 4 dozen San Diego police officers, reserves and a Southwestern React team--a group of citizen volunteers with CB radios--covered about 16 square blocks near the boy’s home trying to gather leads to his whereabouts, Cohen said.

Flyers bearing a picture of the boy were passed out to neighbors over a period of five hours in an “under-every-rock type search,” Johnson said.

Lehmann has been separated from his wife, Bonnie, 42, more than a year, Cohen said. He would not face criminal charges if the boy were found with him, because the couple have joint custody of their son, Johnson said.

“There is no indication of kidnaping,” he said.