Ex-Convict Held in Girl’s Kidnaping in Santa Ana

The kidnaping and release of a 6-year-old homeless girl, abducted from a downtown Santa Ana street as her family searched for shelter, has led to the arrest of an ex-convict on parole from an attempted murder conviction.

Eduardo Uzcanga, a 48-year-old transient, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of kidnaping and is a possible suspect in at least 10 attempted child kidnapings in Los Angeles County.

The girl was pulled into a pickup truck about 6:30 p.m. Saturday at 3rd Street and Lacy Avenue as she straggled behind two siblings and her mother, Dianna Kare, who were trying to reach a Salvation Army center, police said.

“Somehow she got out of sight of the family,” Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said. “Her mother was able to see her taken from the scene but was so far away that she really couldn’t do anything.”

Police found the child about two hours later, wandering in the area where the abduction occurred. She appeared to be unhurt, but detectives are awaiting results of a medical examination to determine whether she was sexually assaulted.

Uzcanga, who was convicted of attempted murder in Orange County Superior Court several years ago, is being held in Orange County Jail. Officials with the district attorney’s office said Sunday that they expect to file a one-count kidnaping case against him.

Police also confiscated Uzcanga’s pickup, a dark-blue Chevrolet with a white camper shell. The girl’s mother told police that she saw a Latino man in a blue pickup grab her daughter.

The Santa Ana kidnaping is the 11th reported incident of its type in Orange and Los Angeles counties involving a dark-haired Latino or white man with a mustache, who drove up to girls in a dark-blue pickup. With the exception of the Santa Ana case, the children all managed to run away and call for help, police said.

The attempted kidnapings were reported in Hawthorne, Manhattan Beach, Pico Rivera, Redondo Beach and Torrance from Sept. 13 to 28. Police said the children, 7 to 12 years old, were approached while playing or walking home from school. The man told them that their parents were hurt or that he was supposed to pick them up, officials said.

Thomas said Santa Ana detectives were providing pictures and information to investigators from the other cities and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to see whether there is a connection to Uzcanga.

“Some things match and some things don’t,” Manhattan Beach Police Sgt. Jack Zea said. “We are going to look at him anyway. We are trying to get pictures of him and look at his background to see where he has been the last couple weeks.”

Zea noted that Uzcanga is 48, while most witnesses said the abductor in the other cases is in his 30s. Also, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach police said the suspect’s vehicle was described as a foreign-made compact truck, not a full-size Chevrolet.

In the latest Los Angeles County incident, a man matching the description of someone who tried to lure children into his truck in the South Bay approached an 8-year-old girl Thursday while she walked home from school in Pico Rivera.

The intended victim had stopped near an intersection when the man told her to get into his dark-blue Chevy pickup, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Cheryl Comstock said. When the girl refused, the man drove away.

“He said, ‘Get in the car, your mother told me to pick you up,’ ” Comstock said.