Reward Fund Started for Clues to Missing Girl

Maria Campos lives a few miles away and has never met Leticia Hernandez, but that didn’t stop her from putting up $200 to start a reward fund to help find the missing girl.

“It’s not a lot,” said Campos, who once lived in the Hernandezes’ Bush Street neighborhood in Oceanside. “I wish I had more. But I hope people will give what they can.

“I just hope that this mother’s suffering ends soon.”

The gesture was warmly received by the family.

“We appreciate everything that’s been done,” said Javier Hernandez, the victim’s uncle. “If it weren’t for all the help we’ve received, we wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

Leticia, 7, disappeared Saturday afternoon. She was last seen in front of the family’s apartment.

Searches have been conducted in the neighborhood and have now extended to other Western states and Mexico. Officer Robert George of the Oceanside Police Deparment said 14 officers and four FBI agents are working on the case. “We are still tracing the dozens of calls we’ve received,” he said.

FBI agents are now in Mexico trying to find the girl’s father, Rodolfo Martinez, who has been visiting his mother in Irapuato, a town in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.

Last Christmas was also a sad one for the family. Javier Hernandez said Jorge, Leticia’s 2-year-old brother, was in the hospital suffering from meningitis.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the reward fund can do so at any Great American Bank branch in Orange or San Diego counties. The account number is 007-554953-5.