2 Missing Girls Turn Up in Desert; Hunt Pressed for Alleged Kidnaper

The tiny community of Pioneertown heaved a sigh of relief Thursday after two girls missing for nearly a week were found wandering in the eastern Mojave Desert.

The half sisters were described by authorities as tired, sunburned, dehydrated and scratched from walking for hours through the desert brush, but otherwise unharmed.

There was no sign of the girls’ alleged abductor, Alan Erickson, but an arrest warrant was issued and a search of the area was under way.

Silver Putnam, 6, was spotted just before 8 a.m. when she wandered into the Hector Quarry area off Interstate 40 east of Barstow, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Bryant said.

Silver told authorities her 3-year-old half sister, Kristina Johnson, was asleep in the desert a short distance away. The younger girl was spotted about an hour later by a California Highway Patrol helicopter.

Kristina was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition suffering from extreme dehydration. Sheriff’s Sgt. Gerry Tesselaar said Kristina also had “bumps and bruises” from what her sister described as a fall.

Silver was in good condition at Barstow Community Hospital.

“Their biggest problem was the heat and dehydration,” Tesselaar said. The temperature in Barstow Thursday was 109.

Scores of volunteers and sheriff’s deputies had been hunting for the youngsters since last Friday, when they vanished with Erickson, a friend and neighbor of the family and a longtime Pioneertown resident.

The gray pickup truck Erickson was driving was found parked in the sand about two miles from the quarry, and deputies fanned out from there in search of the suspect.

“We’ve got professional trackers out there, as well as aircraft,” Sgt. Steve Morgan said. “They picked up tracks heading for Ludlow, so unless he made it to the freeway and caught a ride, we hope to find him.”

In Pioneertown, a remote, sparsely populated community 75 miles east of San Bernardino, news that the girls were found spread quickly.

“Everybody’s very happy that they’re safe and sound,” said Pioneertown’s postmaster, Dorren Thompson. “It’s all over the radio out here. People who don’t hear that way, hear about it from me when they come in.”

Erickson, 36, was considered a recluse but was a familiar figure in Pioneertown. He lived in a cabin that lacked utilities and had not had a box at the post office for years, Thompson said.

The bearded man disappeared with the girls after telling their mother, Linda Johnson, that he was driving to town to buy a motorcycle part. He was spotted later that day at a Joshua Tree convenience store and, as word of the girls’ abduction spread, numerous other reported sightings flooded in from as far away as Sacramento.

“As it turns out, it looks like they were just off-roading it around the desert,” Bryant said.

Tesselaar said Silver Putnam told investigators that the truck broke down several miles south of Interstate 40 on Wednesday or Thursday. Erickson reportedly told the girls to stay with the vehicle and that he was going for help.

Erickson is described as about 5-feet-8, heavyset, with blue eyes, a full black beard, and hair usually worn in a ponytail.