Missing Girl’s Family Prays for One Gift

Leticia Hernandez wants to be a model when she grows up. She is also a timid and mothering 7-year-old who braided her own hair for the school photograph that has been reproduced and distributed all over Oceanside and neighboring communities.

She never wandered away from home. Her mother, sister, uncle or grandmother always knew where she was. But now, they wonder where she is and pray they will see her soon.

Sadly, no one has seen Leticia since Saturday afternoon.

“She’s my only sister,” said Maria Hernandez, 16, in the family’s kitchen. “Every time I look at her picture, I start crying.”

The family’s life is centered on worry and wonder.

Maria is cooking for the other children--Alejandro, 12; Victor, 10; Daniel, 4, and Jorge, 2--because their mother and grandmother are too preoccupied to either cook or eat.

On Monday, Daniel told his mother: “If I were big, I would put on my Superman suit, and I would fly around until I saw her. I would rescue her and bring her home. I would hold her in one arm and fly home.”

Jorge was sitting with Leticia outside the family’s Bush street apartment in Oceanside only minutes before she disappeared.

“We asked him where she is, but he only opens his hands and shakes his head--saying that he doesn’t know,” said an uncle, Javier Hernandez.

Though the Marine Corps searched the canyon near Interstate 5 and the San Luis Rey River, and citizens band radio operators have been broadcasting her description, as of Tuesday there was still no trace.

News that a little girl had been abducted and found in San Diego brought only momentary hope.

“I thought she might be ours,” said her mother, also named Leticia Hernandez.

Her eyes lighted up. But her voice was low, the Spanish words coming slowly. “I’m glad they found that little girl,” she said. “I hope they find mine.”

Leticia Hernandez, 32, has not been able to sleep since Saturday. “The only thing that keeps me going is God,” she said.

Daniel slipped into his mother’s lap and hid his face in the folds of her sweater.

“You see?” asked the mother of six, “This is how Leticia is. She’s timid.”

Since Sunday, when word got out, people have been going to the home to offer solace.

Tuesday, Marty Roane, Leticia’s first-grade teacher, brought candy canes, cookies and brownies made by staff members from Leticia’s Palmquist Elementary School. One of Leticia’s kindergarten teachers, Jackie Madison, was already there.

“She’s like a mother hen,” said Madison. “If she (Leticia) sees another little kid crying, she’ll go over there and just put her arm around them. She’ll say, ‘Don’t feel bad. It’s OK.’ ”

The last time Madison saw Leticia was Friday evening, when she and other teachers took Christmas presents to some of their pupils in the barrio.

“She was so thrilled to see me,” she said. “We brought some presents for the kids upstairs, but she wasn’t concerned about that. She was just happy to see her teachers out of school.”

The dusty area where Leticia was last seen was empty of children Tuesday. Kids darted in and out of their apartment upstairs.

The upstairs neighbor, Maria Rodriguez, said Leticia’s disappearance has made her even more careful of her children. Her son, Leonardo, 5, is a playmate of Leticia’s.

“You think it could happen to anyone’s child,” she said.

“I would rather keep him here. . . . Play with him myself.”

Those words were in the minds of many mothers. A flyer was brought to Maria Campos’ home a few miles from Bush Street.

“I asked ‘What can I do to help find her?’ ” she said.

Campos is a mother of four and hopes someone in the business community will offer a reward.

Sabina Contreras, a grandmother of six, lives near Bush Street.

“I am praying,” she said in Spanish. “There are always children outside playing. “Now, you don’t see that many. This could happen to anyone. Anywhere.”

The Hernandez household was quiet Tuesday, the afternoon sun was shining gold into the living room and onto the Christmas tree. On the tree were two festive decorations Leticia made: two candy canes with pipe cleaners and garland wrapped around the handles to make them look like antlers.

But now, the family solemnly waits for the only gift they really want.