Police Have Few Leads in Search for Girl

Police still had few leads late Monday in their search for 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez, who has been missing since Saturday.

Hundreds of volunteers blanketed Oceanside and neighboring cities with thousands of flyers, and officers were joined by FBI agents who repeated house-to-house searches in the neighborhood.

The girl’s mother, also named Leticia Hernandez, said many people have stopped by her house to offer help in the search.

“I am so sad,” said Hernandez, a mother of six. “I pray that we will find her. Who knows what has happened to her? She may be crying.

“I hope whoever has her will return her to me. . . . If whoever has her does not want to bring her here, then at least leave her in a place where she can reach me.”

Oceanside police Officer Robert George said five children told police that at about 6 p.m. Saturday, a man offered them $50 to get into a two-tone blue, four-door Cadillac. That was at 6th and Hill streets, not far from the Hernandez family’s Bush Street apartment, George said. The children described the man as white, heavily built, about 30 years old, balding, with hair around his ears.

On Sunday afternoon, helicopters flew over the area, and officers used dogs to sniff through the dense brush in the canyons near Interstate 5, George said, adding that a search of the San Luis Rey River bottom yielded nothing.

Javier Hernandez, the girl’s uncle, said Leticia was playing in front of the family’s apartment with several other children about 5 p.m. Saturday while her mother washed clothes in the first floor of the apartment building.

He said the mother was in the apartment for about 10 minutes and that, when she stepped outside, she could not see Leticia or the other children.

“She knocked on all the neighbors’ doors, and they all started looking for her,” he said.

Although Leticia has never wandered off by herself, Javier Hernandez said, they waited for several hours before calling police because “we hoped she was with some other kids. But when they came back about 9 p.m., she wasn’t with them.”

George said: “No one saw her leave. One moment she was there, and the next moment she was gone.”

The officer said volunteers--from block captains to gang members--were distributing thousands of flyers over Oceanside, Vista, Fallbrook, San Marcos, Encinitas and other communities.

George said Leticia was wearing a white tank top, either red or white shorts, white socks and white sandals. She has brown eyes. Her brown hair was pulled back in a pigtail and tied with red and green ribbons, he said.

The first-grader speaks Spanish and English and weighs 60 to 80 pounds. She is missing her two front teeth and has a birthmark on her upper left leg.

The girl’s father, Rodolfo Martinez, 36, is visiting his mother in Mexico. On Monday, a Christmas card arrived from him.