Missing Oceanside Girl Believed Seen Again

In the Oceanside house of missing 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez, the Christmas presents remain wrapped and the family will not celebrate the new year.

“We will keep praying that Leticia comes back,” said the girl’s uncle Javier. For the family of 11 crammed into a 2-bedroom house, Leticia’s Dec. 16 disappearance has stripped the holiday season of joy.

But police delivered some good news to the otherwise bleak home in the 1300 block of Bush Street when they confirmed a second sighting of the girl.

A child matching the description of Leticia was seen at 11 a.m. Wednesday by several witnesses on Interstate 10 at the San Simon rest stop in Arizona, just west of New Mexico, Oceanside Police Department Sgt. Bill Krunglevich said Saturday.

The girl was seen with a man and a woman at the rest stop, Krunglevich said. Witnesses told police that the child seemed distraught, scared and intimidated but she bore no visible scars or marks of physical abuse, he said.

“At least we’re getting closer,” said Javier, a 24-year-old convenience store clerk. “At least we know somebody has seen her and we know she is still alive.”

The girl was also wearing a pink-and-white-striped sweat shirt, which she did not have on when she disappeared.

The second sighting has given new leads to the police, who believe the girl is traveling with a man and a woman. Authorities had been unaware of a woman until this week.

“We are not sure whether she has been traveling with him (the man) the whole time,” said Officer Jane Simons.

The woman is described as being in her mid-thirties, white, 5-foot-10 with a slender build and bleached-blond collar-length hair, Krunglevich said. Her traveling companion is a white, 5-foot-8, 230-pound man with a receding forehead. He is reportedly clean shaven, in his thirties with shoulder-length thinning blond hair and a tattoo of a cross on the back of his hand.

The child and the two adults were seen in a dirty maroon car with a tan interior that police believe may be a 1975 Buick Skylark. The car had yellow license plates with black letters, which could be from Alaska, Wisconsin, New Mexico or California, Krunglevich said.

A witness reported seeing the girl at the Buckman Springs rest stop on Interstate 8 the day she disappeared, but did not report it to police until five days later. This second sighting, reported within 24 hours of happening, is very encouraging for police, who are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to find the girl, Krunglevich said.

“We’re real dependent on sightings and public cooperation,” Krunglevich said.

Heartened by the two sightings, police are sending two officers to help Arizona authorities with the case, Krunglevich said. After asking newspapers and television stations in the Southwest to publicize the disappearance, police have received 200 phone calls with tips in the last two days, he said.

At Leticia’s home, her family anxiously waits and prays. The first grader, who speaks Spanish and English, weighs about 70 pounds, has long brown hair, is missing her two front teeth and has a birthmark on her upper left leg.

Her 9-year-old brother Victor said he doesn’t mind not opening gifts on Christmas because he is waiting for the biggest and best present: Leticia.

Anyone with information about Leticia Hernandez is asked to call the police or 966-4911.