THOUSAND OAKS : Detectives Seek Tips on Slain Nurse’s Truck

Ventura County sheriff’s detectives made an appeal Friday for tips from anyone who saw slain nurse Kellie O’Sullivan’s truck on the day she disappeared while running errands in the Westlake area.

“If any of the public on the 14th of September saw this vehicle and would like to comment on it, we’d sure appreciate it,” said Detective Sgt. Mike Barnes, lead investigator in O’Sullivan’s death.

On Sunday, the 34-year-old nurse and mother was found shot to death in a heavily wooded gully beside Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles County, just over the border from Westlake.

Her black 1991 Ford Explorer, California license plate number 2VPL883, had been found in Reno, Nev., on Sept. 20.

Police recovered the vehicle following the arrest of Mark Scott Thornton, 19, whom police say is the prime suspect in O’Sullivan’s disappearance.

Detectives said Thornton admitted finding the truck empty with keys in it outside a Thousand Oaks pet shop on the afternoon of Sept. 14 and using it at about 11 that evening to abduct his ex-girlfriend from her Thousand Oaks home. But he and the girl, 16-year-old Stephanie Campbell, told detectives they never saw O’Sullivan.

Thornton is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in the alleged kidnaping.

Barnes said detectives finished processing evidence taken from O’Sullivan’s truck at sheriff’s headquarters in Ventura earlier this week, after driving it here from Reno.

He declined to further discuss evidence in the case.

When reporters examined the truck’s interior Friday, it appeared to have been cleaned out carefully, except for a pencil on the floor, a small plastic bag in the front-seat console and a garage-door opener clipped to the driver’s side sun visor.

Detectives had removed the variety of clothing, camping gear and toiletries they found inside the truck in Reno, along with the black purse containing 41 rounds of .38-caliber ammunition that had been discovered in the search outlined in court records.

Except for sheriff’s adhesive yellow evidence seals, which had been placed over all the doors and then cut by detectives, “It appears to be in the same condition” as when O’Sullivan’s family last saw it, Barnes said.

Ballistics tests were completed late Thursday on the bullets taken from O’Sullivan’s body and the .38-caliber gun confiscated from Thornton when he was arrested by Reno police. But detectives and Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris declined to say whether tests showed that the bullets that killed O’Sullivan came from that gun or another weapon.

Anyone with information on the truck is asked to call Barnes at 654-2353 or Detective Rick Gatling at 654-2341, Barnes said. Calls after hours should be made to 654-2311.