Missing Sun Valley Girl Returns, Says She Was Kidnaped

A 17-year-old Sun Valley girl who disappeared Friday night while walking from her home to her family’s nearby restaurant reappeared Monday night at a nearby hospital, telling police she had been kidnaped by three people who took her to a tall building downtown and later released her.

Maria Kaffatos was treated at Pacifica Hospital in Sun Valley. She was uninjured, except for minor bruises, and was expected to be released Monday night, Los Angeles police said.

Kaffatos had been reported missing by her parents when she failed to show up for work at the family’s restaurant. A kidnaping investigation was launched when her father found her purse and a shoe on the street she would have taken.

“She claimed she was kidnaped,” said police Lt. Ron Lewis. He said she told him that “as she was walking, an individual forced her into a car where there was another male and female.” She described them as “Iranian or Armenian” and said they took her downtown to a tall building near the Alameda Street off-ramp.

“During the time she was held, there was no ransom demand,” Lewis said. He said she told him that the three people wanted her to call and get the address and phone number of “an individual she knew and they knew so they could contact him.”

He said he could not explain further.

According to Lewis, the girl said she was released Sunday night, spent the night in a downtown park, and later received a ride from a stranger who asked her if she needed help. He dropped her in Sun Valley with some money, she said, and she called friends from a coin telephone because she “was concerned her parents would be angry and would think she just ran away.”

Her friends took her to the hospital, she said.

“She did sustain a couple of bruises, but she doesn’t remember how she got them,” Lewis said.

Maria, the oldest of three sisters and a student at Burbank High School, disappeared after leaving her home for the two-block walk along Vinedale Avenue to the Old Fashioned Drive-In on Glenoaks Boulevard, where she often worked for her parents after school, Lewis said.

Her parents had called her at home about 7:30 p.m. Friday and asked her to help with some bookkeeping, Lewis said. When she failed to arrive, they called police. About 3 a.m., the girl’s father, Markos Kaffatos, walked the route himself and discovered one of her tennis shoes in the street and her purse in a driveway. He notified police, and the kidnaping investigation was begun, Lewis said.

When she reappeared, the girl told Lewis she deliberately kicked off her shoe and dropped her purse as she was being abducted, hoping it would help searchers find her.