Missing Oceanside Girl Sighted at I-8 Rest Stop

Oceanside police have released a composite drawing of a possible suspect in the widely publicized disappearance of 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez, who has been missing since Dec. 16.

A witness saw a man near a young girl--positively identified as the missing Hernandez--at an isolated Interstate 8 rest stop in eastern San Diego County about midnight the day she disappeared, said Sgt. Bill Krunglevich, an Oceanside police spokesman.

The witness, who waited five days before contacting authorities, saw the girl and man about midnight Dec. 16 at the Buckman Springs rest stop, about 50 miles east of San Diego and more than 80 miles from the girl’s home. The suspect was 10 to 15 feet away as the girl, wearing shorts, left a lady’s restroom, Krunglevich said, citing the witness’ account.

The sighting is the first solid lead to emerge in a case that has baffled authorities from the Oceanside Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials said.

As a result of the sighting, which was confirmed only Tuesday evening, Krunglevich said that law enforcement authorities throughout the Southwest had been alerted to the possibility that the girl had been taken out of California. The composite image of the suspect is also being sent to news media from Las Vegas to El Paso.

While the witness saw the girl and the man 12 days ago, police said there had been considerable delay in reporting and confirming the sighting.

For one thing, Oceanside police detective Dan Ahrens noted that the witness did not contact police until Dec. 21. The witness finally became convinced after seeing a television report on the case that included a photograph of the missing child.

In addition, Ahrens noted that investigators have had to sift through numerous leads in the case, many generated by the considerable media coverage of the holiday-time disappearance. Complicating matters, Ahrens said, was the Christmas holiday and attendant police manpower shortages.

“It just took us a while to confirm that the sighting was absolute,” Krunglevich said.

He said investigators eventually interviewed the witness and showed her photographs of the victim. It turned out that the girl was apparently wearing the same shorts at the rest stop that she had on when she disappeared earlier that day, Krunglevich said.

The suspect, described as a long-haired, heavy-set white male, perhaps 30-35 years old, does not fit the description of the man who offered children $50 to get into his Cadillac on the day Leticia disappeared, Krunglevich said. Police have said that the man in the Cadillac made the offer to about five youths at a spot near where the missing girl was last seen on the afternoon of Dec. 16. Police are still pursuing that lead, which is considered separate from the Buckman Springs sighting, Krunglevich said.

The suspect seen at Buckman Springs was said to be about 5-foot-8, weighing 200-250 pounds, with blond, shoulder-length hair, thinning at the top. When spotted, police said, he was clean-shaven and was wearing blue jeans, a blue-and-white plaid shirt, and tennis shoes.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to telephone Oceanside police at 966-4957 (days) or 966-4911 (nights).