Girl, 8, Escapes Would-Be Abductor on Way to East San Diego School : Crime: Kidnaping attempt heightens fears among parents in wake of three disappearances of young girls.

Two days after the body of a missing 9-year-old girl was found in a North Park canyon, another young girl narrowly avoided being abducted as she walked to school in East San Diego, police said Wednesday.

The abduction attempt occurred between 7:25 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. on El Cajon Boulevard as the 8-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother walked to Jackson Elementary School at 54th Street and El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego police spokesman Dave Cohen said.

Wednesday’s incident occurred two days after the nude body of Amanda Leigh Gaeke, 9, was recovered from a brushy canyon. Amanda was a student at McKinley Elementary School and had been missing for 11 days. Police believe she was abducted after school and killed.

Homicide investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy by the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause and time of Amanda’s death.

Lt. Dan Berglund said preliminary evidence suggests that she was strangled, but he cautioned that additional tests are needed.

Amanda is one of three 9-year-old girls from San Diego who have disappeared since June. Laura Arroyo disappeared June 19 after she ran downstairs to answer a nighttime knock at the front door of her family’s San Ysidro condominium. Her body was found the next morning at a Chula Vista industrial complex.

Rasheeyda Wilson disappeared July 15, a block from her home on F Street in downtown San Diego. She is still missing.

Police said there are no apparent links in the three cases.

However, Wednesday’s near-abduction has heightened the fears of anxious parents.

The children were not harmed in the latest incident, and police said that the girl was apparently the intended target.

The children, who are black, told police that the would-be abductor was a light-skinned black, about 30, who had a stocking mask on. He drove a big, older model car, possibly a Cadillac, that the children said had a white top and olive green bottom.

Although he had a mask on, the girl told police that the man had black hair with blond streaks in it. The girl also said that he was dirty, unkempt and wore a blue T-shirt with holes in it.

Both children’s identities were not released but their father was identified as Larry Sanders. He was shown on television newscasts arriving at the school with three younger children to pick up his older children, who Cohen said were badly shaken by the incident.

Police and school administrators credited the children, especially the girl, with doing exactly what they were taught to do when dealing with strangers.

“The little girl is very shaken. She was very scared. The best part about it is that she did everything she was supposed to. Her parents had talked to her and discussed just this kind of thing and how to react,” Cohen said.

According to a police report, the children were walking on the sidewalk on the south side of El Cajon Boulevard, heading west toward Jackson School, when they noticed the car. The driver slowed as he passed them and pulled into a nearby parking lot.

The car suddenly turned around and began driving toward the children, going west in the eastbound lanes, with two of its wheels on the sidewalk, investigators said. As the car approached the children, the driver slowed down, opened his door and grabbed the girl.

“At that point she screamed and broke free. She then grabbed her brother, and they both ran to school, where they told school officials what happened,” Cohen said.

It took San Diego police more than an hour to respond to the incident because school administrators reported it first to school district police, Cohen added. It is not known how long it took the school police to respond to the call or who eventually contacted San Diego police.

It was announced Wednesday that the family of Amanda Gaeke has established a memorial fund in her name with Union Bank. Contributions to the fund may be made at any Union Bank in the county. Checks should be made out to the Amanda Leigh Gaeke Trust Fund. More information can be obtained from Mike Sund of Union Bank at 759-1045.