Costa Mesa : Victim Wayne Found Gives a Vague Account

A 19-year-old Costa Mesa woman who told police that she had been kidnaped and dumped over a cliff in Upper Newport Bay has given investigators vague descriptions of her abductors because she may have been drugged, Costa Mesa police said Wednesday.

The woman, Tracy Bennett Hecht, could recall very little of the events that occurred after three men abducted her Sunday afternoon, Sgt. Ron Smith said.

Hecht was unconscious and partly bound when TV actor Ethan Wayne, 27, son of the late John Wayne, and two companions on Monday found her lying about 100 feet from the water in a ravine near the cliffs of the Dover Shore area of Newport Beach.

Hecht told police that three men pulled her into a light-colored, U.S.-made car about 4:30 p.m. as she was walking to her job at a convenience store in Costa Mesa.

Her abductors took her to a house in Laguna Beach, where she was given something to drink that made her fall asleep, she told police.

“From that point on until she is found by Wayne, she draws a complete blank,” Smith said.

Hecht told police that two abductors were Latino, and one was white. The white man was 23 to 25 years old, with blond hair and of average height and weight.

One of the Latino suspects was about 23, with black hair and also of average height and weight. She described the third man only as Latino of average height and weight, Smith said.