Police Close Books on Leticia’s Case

The Oceanside Police Department will suspend its investigation into the kidnaping-murder of Leticia Hernandez, investigators said Tuesday, more than 2 1/2 years after the 7-year-old’s death.

Leads have run dry, Lt. Ralph Korbacher said, and, after some minor paperwork is filed next week, the case with its boxes of reports will be filed in the records department.

“Everyone pretty much is in agreement that we have run as far as we can at this point,” Korbacher said. “Our department doesn’t have any more leads that we feel are worth moving on and spending more time on.”

One investigator had been working on the case part-time.

While investigators have long had a suspect in the murder, DNA tests conducted earlier this year were inconclusive and the case has gone nowhere since.

The disappearance of the Oceanside girl on Dec. 16, 1989, from the front yard of her apartment sparked a nationwide hunt for her and what were believed to be two captors. The search, which received extensive television attention, led to at least 18 reports of sightings stretching from California to Florida.

But, on March 6, 1991, Leticia’s skull and a pair of red shorts she was wearing when she was abducted were discovered near a rural road between the Pala Indian Reservation and the Riverside County line, about 20 miles from her home.

Analysis of the skull showed that she had died within 90 days of her disappearance.

A convicted child molester and alien smuggler who lived down the street from Leticia became a suspect in the case, but investigators have not been able to form a reliable case against him.

Agencies other than Oceanside police, although not having officially moved the Hernandez case off their books, hold out little hope of making progress.

“The well on that, as far as I’m concerned, is pretty dry,” said Steve Casey of the district attorney’s office, which was part of the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force that investigated her death. “In terms of the D.A.’s participation, it would be inaccurate to characterize it as an active, ongoing investigation at this point.”