2 Kidnaped Girls Spotted by TV News Crew, Rescued

A 16-year-old mentally disabled girl was reunited with her mother Tuesday less than 24 hours after she and a 12-year-old playmate were kidnaped at a Labor Day church outing in a South Gate park, police said.

A television crew spotted the two girls and their alleged abductors Tuesday afternoon, only minutes after leaving a South Gate police press conference to announce the girls’ disappearance, said Sgt. Russ Galbreath.

Police freed the girls and arrested two suspects without incident.

Melissa Sanchez of Cudahy and Emily Garcia of Paramount had been abducted at 8:05 p.m. Monday from the parking lot at South Gate City Park as Emily’s mother, Elizabeth Mosqueda, watched helplessly, police said. Emily has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old, Galbreath said.

Moments earlier, Mosqueda had given her daughter the keys to retrieve a purse from the trunk of her car, police said.

Mosqueda “saw an unknown man backing her car out of one of the parking stalls and at the same time pushing her daughter into the car,” Galbreath said. As the car sped north on Hildreth Avenue, Mosqueda briefly ran after the vehicle, screaming out her daughter’s name.

Mosqueda flagged down a passing South Gate police patrol car, and detectives began searching the neighborhood, police said. Detectives released photographs of the girls and descriptions of the car at the Tuesday afternoon press conference.

At about 4 p.m., a news crew from Spanish-language television station KVEA, Channel 52, spotted the car at a gas station at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Firestone Boulevard, less than two blocks from the park where the girls had been abducted, Galbreath said.

The crew called 911 on their cellular phone, and police arrived at the scene a few minutes later, Galbreath said.

The girls were at the service station along with two men, who were arrested in connection with the kidnaping.

Felipe Perez, 18, and Alfredo Torres, 23, were being held Tuesday at the South Gate Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each. They were both charged with kidnaping, robbery and auto theft, police said.

“They haven’t been injured,” Galbreath said of the two girls. “They’re pretty shaken up. One girl had been crying.”