Search Intensifies for Missing Westlake Nurse

As a Thousand Oaks kidnaping suspect waived extradition Wednesday in Nevada, a massive search continued through rugged canyons around his hometown for a missing nurse whose truck he admitted using to abduct his ex-girlfriend last week.

Mark Scott Thornton, 19, agreed in Reno Justice Court not to fight extradition, said Washoe County Public Defender Mike Specchio, who represented him during a video arraignment.

Specchio said he and Justice of the Peace Ed Hannan watched the televised image of Thornton, who stood before a camera six miles away in the Washoe County Detention Center in a bright orange, jail-issued jumpsuit.

“The judge advised him of his rights, and I advised him of his rights not to speak to anybody until he spoke to his lawyer,” Specchio said. “He signed the paper waiving extradition. . . . He looked young and scared.”

The hearing freed Ventura County authorities to bring Thornton back in the next few days to face prosecution, said Sheriff’s Lt. Craig Husband of the major crimes division.

Husband said Thornton probably will be charged with kidnaping for abducting 16-year-old Stephanie Campbell, and may also be charged with assault or attempted murder for shooting at her mother before he drove away. He also faces an outstanding burglary charge, Husband said.

Police said the couple spent the week on the road in the truck of missing Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan, sleeping in campgrounds before arriving in Reno.

The girl walked away from Thornton unharmed just after midnight on Monday and summoned police while he was playing a video game at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, police said.

Thornton allegedly pulled out a .38-caliber pistol when confronted by Reno officers, but they wrestled him down and arrested him with no shots fired.

Meanwhile, Ventura County detectives on Wednesday finished plucking evidence out of the black 1991 Ford Explorer that Thornton admitted taking--a truck that belonged to O’Sullivan.

There has been no sign of O’Sullivan, who was last seen several hours before Stephanie’s abduction Sept. 14. She was seen leaving a Thousand Oaks pet shop where Thornton told detectives he found the truck empty with the keys in it. Wednesday was O’Sullivan’s 34th birthday.

So far, there is no indication O’Sullivan has been killed, Husband said. Although Thornton’s possession of her truck makes him a suspect in her disappearance, “I think the investigators here want to keep an open mind,” Husband said.

About 50 volunteers--many of whom had never met O’Sullivan--joined her family and friends and about 30 sheriff’s personnel in a massive search that pushed on through 170 square miles of thick brush and twisting back-country roads in the Santa Monica Mountains surrounding Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Somis and Moorpark.

By dirt bike, helicopter, horse and foot, they combed seldom-traveled canyons and thickly overgrown arroyos in large pockets of wilderness that were kept untouched during the development of the City of Thousand Oaks.

Linked to other search parties by cellular phone, volunteers in four-wheel-drive trucks negotiated a tortuous dirt road into a little-used corner of the land around prestigious Lake Sherwood.

There, they tramped through dense brush and peered into deserted, graffiti-scarred boathouses that had been burned out long ago and turned into party hangouts by neighborhood teen-agers. Two men with pitchforks dug through the silt and marsh grass along the lake’s shores, but found nothing.

Along Carlisle Road, four women used new walking canes to poke through trash piles that people had dumped off the road’s edge.

“We’ve checked all the little trails where somebody might have been dragged,” said Elaine Starr of Westlake. Starr said she never met O’Sullivan, but was moved to join the search when she learned of the young mother’s disappearance.

“We’re all concerned. It could be any one of us,” she said. “It’s something you hope people would be doing for each other. You’d hope they’d do the same if it was you.”

Every 50 feet or so, the volunteers tied strips of purple crepe paper to trees, brush and telephone poles to mark areas that they had searched.

“We’ve sort of doubled our efforts on a private level every day. More and more people are showing up,” said Cliff O’Sullivan, the missing woman’s ex-husband.

Dozens of people--including some who claimed psychic powers--have phoned in tips, he said.

“I’m not scoffing at anything like that,” he said. “What we’re trying to make an appeal for is for people to jog their memories, if they’ve seen anything bizarre.”

Kevin White, Kellie O’Sullivan’s boyfriend, said he rode in helicopters over some of the more remote canyons Wednesday.

As the Ventura County sheriff’s helicopter idled noisily alongside a tiny private helicopter loaned to the search, Thomas said, “The scary part is how many little hermit houses there are up there that nobody’s been to.”

Cliff O’Sullivan said that the family has set up a fund in Kellie O’Sullivan’s name to help pay for gas, food, telephones, aviation fuel and other support for the ongoing search. Donations can be sent to the Great Western Bank, care of Kellie O’Sullivan, 23703 Calabasas Rd., Calabasas, CA 91302.