Officer Killed Foster Daughter, 3 : Crime: In a videotaped confession, the San Bernardino motorcycle patrolman said he buried the youngster and made up an abduction story to cover her disappearance. He committed suicide Friday.

A San Bernardino police officer who said his foster daughter was kidnaped from a shopping mall last month actually killed the girl and concocted the story of her abduction to cover his crime, authorities disclosed Monday.

In a videotaped confession turned over to police by his attorney, Officer Craig Armstrong said he killed 3-year-old Alicia while disciplining her at the family’s Colton home July 28.

Armstrong’s attorney, Grover L. Porter, said his client intended to surrender to police Monday and face criminal charges. Instead, Armstrong committed suicide Friday night by hanging himself in a relative’s garage.

San Bernardino Police Chief Dan Robbins said Alicia’s body has not been found. Investigators, armed with information supplied by Armstrong on the videotape, will resume their search of an undisclosed area in the Inland Empire today, Robbins said.

“The shock of these circumstances is tremendous for the San Bernardino Police Department,” Robbins said Monday, as several among the 20 officers at the crowded news conference fought back tears.

“It’s something we’re going to have to deal with as a family, that one of our officers--incredible as it may seem--could have done something like this.”

Armstrong, 29, made his two-hour confession--which Porter said was videotaped at his client’s request--on Thursday night at the lawyer’s San Bernardino office.

In the statement, Armstrong said he had punished Alicia for going into the kitchen about 2 a.m., perhaps to get something to eat.

Robbins said the officer recalled spanking Alicia and then striking her once in the stomach with a blow that apparently killed the girl. Alicia was the eldest of two children the Armstrongs were in the process of adopting.

Armstrong’s wife, Tammy, a Loma Linda nurse, was working the night of the killing, Robbins said, adding that she is no longer a suspect in the case. She returned home at 8 a.m. and did not check on Alicia after being told by Armstrong that the child was sleeping in a guest bedroom.

After Tammy Armstrong went to bed, her husband took Alicia’s body and buried her, and then invented the story about her disappearance, Robbins said.

“He was trying to bide for time, to make a decision,” Robbins said, relating the details of the videotape. “He felt he had gone too far and that there was no road back. The little girl was dead and he really couldn’t see too many options. He wanted to survive, and he . . . concocted a story.”

In a phone call to police about 12 hours after Alicia’s death, Armstrong reported that she had vanished. He said the girl disappeared at Inland Center mall in San Bernardino after he took his eyes off her for a moment.

In response, a 12-officer task force was formed and the FBI was called in. A composite sketch of a suspect was released to the media and the San Bernardino Police Officers Assn. offered a $10,000 reward for the girl’s safe return.

Nine days later, investigators began to focus on the Armstrongs as possible suspects. The couple’s Colton home was searched and their two cars taken to the crime lab. Later, a mountain cabin owned by relatives was searched.

Robbins said investigators found several items that made Armstrong a primary suspect. Among them were towels in a clothes hamper that appeared to be soaked with blood; a mop with similar stains and a child’s garment soaking in a bucket in the garage. Red stains also were found in the couple’s van.

Laboratory analysis has confirmed the stains were blood, but Robbins said investigators cannot confirm whether it was Alicia’s blood until her body is recovered.

Armstrong’s performance on a series of polygraph tests also sounded alarms. Robbins said the test results showed “areas of deception.”

On Aug. 9, Armstrong was placed on paid administrative leave, an unrelated action stemming from the discovery of what Robbins called “unauthorized items” at his home. The chief declined to elaborate.

Six days later, Armstrong visited Porter, and told his story. Porter, describing his client as extremely remorseful, said he “fully expected” Armstrong to turn himself in Monday and was “extremely shocked” when the officer was found dead Friday by his wife.

Armstrong was a six-year veteran of the Police Department who was promoted to the coveted position of motorcycle officer 2 1/2 years ago. One police official who had worked closely with Armstrong described him as a seemingly carefree man who was “always smiling” and proud of his status as a motorcycle cop.

“He got along with everybody,” said the official, who asked not to be named. “He was dedicated to the job.”

The revelation about how Alicia died immediately raised questions for the San Bernardino County Department of Social Services, which approved the adoption that was under way by the Armstrongs.

Director John Michaelson said the department has conducted “an expert review of the licensing and placement records and we are completely satisfied that all regulatory requirements were met.”

“There were no indications,” he said, “that this would be anything other than a successful placement.”

In a tragic twist, several of those on the police task force investigating Alicia’s disappearance were friends of Armstrong’s. Among them was Officer Mike Blechinger.

“Craig was a real good guy, a real good friend,” said Blechinger, who trained Armstrong for his most recent assignment. “He was an easy guy to be with. I just can’t. . . . “

Blechinger, overcome with emotion, could not continue.