Abduction Leaves Woman in a Coma; Police Hunt 2 Men : Crime: Victim was dragged into a truck by suspects. She suffered head injuries when she either fell or was thrown from the moving vehicle.

A young woman who went out for a night of dancing with friends was in a coma Tuesday as police sought two men who abducted her outside a disco and may have thrown her from a moving truck.

Karen Eickholdt, 19, of Compton, suffered major head injuries when she struck the pavement about one block from Mr. J’s disco at 10478 Valley Boulevard in El Monte.

Several disco patrons witnessed the attack early Monday morning, El Monte Police Detective Butch Reyburn said.

Police and sheriff’s homicide investigators asked for the public’s help in locating two Latino men, each about 20, who abducted Eickholdt on Esto Street near the disco.

Eickholdt, who lives with her mother, stepfather and several siblings, had come to the disco with friends, police said. After the club closed at 2 a.m., she became separated from her companions. She was walking on nearby Esto Street, searching for her friends, when she was accosted by two men, witnesses told investigators.

One of the men, Reyburn said, dragged the young woman “half in and half out” of the passenger door of the truck while the other drove the vehicle away at high speed.

After traveling about a block, the man holding Eickholdt “either threw her to the ground, or she struggled and broke loose from his grip,” Reyburn said.

Paramedics took Eickholdt to Greater El Monte Community Hospital, where she was in critical condition. She has been in a coma since her arrival, police said.

Investigators said the two men being sought may have been among the 300 patrons at the disco that night.

Witnesses described the truck as a 1964-1966 Chevrolet stepside pickup painted in a gray primer with a black left front fender. It bore an older California license plate with yellow letters and numbers on a black background.

Investigators asked that anyone who has information about the incident or the truck contact El Monte police at (818) 580-2100 or the sheriff’s homicide investigators at (213) 974-4341.