Suspect in Desert Kidnap of 2 Girls Seized in Las Vegas

A bearded loner sought on charges of kidnaping two young girls later found wandering in the eastern Mojave Desert was arrested in Las Vegas early Monday, authorities said.

Alan Erickson, 36, of Pioneertown, a tiny desert community 75 miles east of San Bernardino, was arrested shortly after midnight on suspicion of obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Gerald Bucklin said.

“We just stumbled onto the guy completely by accident,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Deputy Police Chief John Sullivan said.

Responding to a call about a man acting strangely, Sullivan said officers confronted Erickson about two blocks from the Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and arrested him when he reacted violently.

A routine check found the man was wanted in California.

San Bernardino County deputies were sent to Nevada on Monday afternoon to question Erickson, Bucklin said.

Erickson had been sought since leaving Pioneertown on June 15 with two neighborhood girls--Silver Putnam, 6, and her 3-year-old half sister, Kristina Johnson, after telling their mother, Linda Johnson, he was driving to town to buy a motorcycle part.

At first, when Erickson and the two girls failed to return, local residents assumed there was a misunderstanding, but doubts and a sense of dread grew as time passed and search efforts continued.

Nearly a week later, the two children--tired, sunburned, dehydrated and scratched--were found in the Hector Quarry area off Interstate 40, east of Barstow. Both girls were hospitalized: Silver in Barstow and Kristina at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

The borrowed gray pickup truck Erickson had been seen driving was found stuck in the sand about two miles from the quarry. The older girl told investigators that Erickson had told them to stay with the truck while he went for help.