Organizers Hope to Fill Reward Coffers to Aid Search for Oceanside Girl : Kidnaping: It’s been nearly seven months since Leticia Hernandez was abucted. Many sightings have been reported, but police are still seeking tips to help locate the 7-year-old girl.

Nearly seven months have passed since 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez was abducted from her family’s Oceanside apartment. Since then, law enforcement agencies across the country have linked forces in their intense search for the young girl, who is now believed to be in northern Florida.

While law officers nationwide continue their investigations, organizers are planning a July 25 benefit at the U.S. Grant Hotel on Broadway. They hope to bring in $100,000 to fill the coffers of the Leticia Hernandez Reward Fund.

“If we can raise that amount of money and offer it as a reward, it is hoped someone with knowledge of the kidnapers or their whereabouts will come forward with information that will help us bring Leticia home,” said Oceanside Officer Chris McDonough, a detective who has been involved with the case since its beginning. McDonough is also chairman of San Diegans for the Return of Leticia Hernandez, created about six weeks ago.

Police say the last sighting of the kidnaped girl was May 22 at a gas station in High Springs, Fla. Leticia was seen with a white man and a white woman, who have been described by witnesses throughout Leticia’s travels eastward.

Florida sightings have included the following in the northwestern part of the state: Panama City on Jan. 2, Branford on Jan. 5, Chattahoochee from Jan. 1 to Jan. 10, Quincy from March 11 to March 23, Greensboro on March 26, Marianna and Cottondale on March 31, Santa Re River near Branford on April 30, and Waldo on May 5.

“We know we’re going to find her. The neighbors come to the house, and we pray a lot. Churches also call and say they are praying for Leticia,” said Leticia’s uncle, Javier Hernandez, 23.

Leticia was abducted about 5 p.m. Dec. 16, while she was playing with her younger brother on the front steps of her family’s 1300 block Bush Street apartment. Her mother, also named Leticia, and her five brothers and one sister, have been keeping vigil for her safe return.

Maria, Leticia’s 16-year-old sister, said the family’s life remains suspended with Leticia gone. Christmas presents remain unopened, a reminder of their somber Christmas holiday without Leticia. Leticia has not even met the newest addition to her family, Michael, who was born June 6, Javier Hernandez said.

Oceanside police received the first solid lead in the case five days after the girl’s disappearance. About midnight of the day she was kidnaped, she was reported seen at the Buckman Springs rest stop about 50 miles east of San Diego and 80 miles away from her home.

Since that sighting, Oceanside police, in coordination with the FBI, have received more than 500 calls of sightings, mostly along the Interstate 10 corridor from California to Florida.

Leticia’s disappearance has generated substantial media attention--including television segments on “Crime Stoppers,” “Unsolved Mysteries,” and “America’s Most Wanted.” Such publicity has generated hundreds of leads, officials said.

Last Sunday, Leticia’s kidnaping was featured on “America’s Most Wanted” for the third time. Program officials said more than 110 calls were made to the show’s hot line in response to the nationwide broadcast.

Leticia’s photograph has also been sent to more than 80 million homes across the country and been placed on grocery bags in Florida. McDonough said a plastic cup manufacturer in San Diego has sent cups with her picture on it to Florida to be sold at concession stands, and 12 radio stations in Florida are playing a song that McDonough composed about Leticia.

That recording, which McDonough sold in cassette form for $5 each, raised the first $7,500 for the reward fund. Through donations, that fund is now at $10,000, he said.

McDonough said the benefit is open to the public and is sponsored by San Diegans for the Return of Leticia Hernandez. Michael Reagan, radio talk show host on KSDO in San Diego, will be master of ceremonies.

Serving on the executive committee of the organization are Gene Autry, Hollywood Western star and California Angels owner, and his wife; Michael Port, Angels general manager; Duke Snider, Hall of Fame outfielder; Tom Werner, managing general partner of the Padres; Rollie Fingers, former pitcher for the Padres, and Reagan.

McDonough said the group selected the executive committee members to bring credibility to the organization. “These kinds of people will make themselves available to support us, and these are noteworthy people who are interested in what we’re doing,” said Doug Sebastian, vice chairman of the group and a high school baseball coach. He said his connections with the sport helped him recruit the high-profile baseball figures.

“These people in baseball have been wonderful and very supportive,” Sebastian said. Fingers, he said, has agreed to be a community spokesman for the committee.

Sebastian said he read an article about Werner, in which the baseball owner indicated he wanted to get involved in the community. “I called his office up, and they were very supportive,” Sebastian said, noting that this is one of Werner’s first community service commitments in San Diego since he assumed primary ownership of the Padres June 15.

“Tom wanted to get involved because it’s a family cause that touched him and his wife. Also, the fact that the search for Leticia has gathered so much community support, he wanted to be a part of that,” Padres spokesman Chuck Gelman said.

Leticia has brown eyes and brown hair. She is about 4 feet tall and weighs about 60 pounds.

One of her suspected captors is a white man in his mid 30s or early 40s, about 6 feet tall, 230 to 250 pounds and of heavy build. He has blond, shoulder-length hair, thinning on top, and a tattoo on the back of a hand depicting a cross with printing on it.

Another captor is described as a slender white woman, about 30, from 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 11 inches tall with blond, shoulder-length hair and light complexion. The other captor is a white woman with a deep tan in her late 40s or early 50s, heavy-set and weighing about 160 pounds. Her dark brown hair is shoulder length with gray streaks.

They are believed to be traveling in a maroon mid-1970 Buick Regal or Skylark or a 1975 or older chocolate brown Dodge van with bubble windows at the rear, pulling a black U-Haul-type trailer.

McDonough said that, although the search is concentrated in Florida, police are also focusing on the San Diego area for clues to her disappearance. Investigators are asking for any leads, no matter how insignificant the information may appear.

“I want to get San Diego involved. This is not just a child on the back of a milk carton. This child belongs to a mother, and is real,” McDonough said.

He said calls concerning Leticia’s kidnaping can be made to the Oceanside Police Department at 966-4911. For more information about the benefit, call 966-2777.