Missing Girl Is Back Home : Inquiry: 11-year-old was reportedly taken to Tijuana by her parents’ former boarder.

An 11-year-old girl was reunited with her family Tuesday, three days after she was reportedly abducted by a family friend who took her to Tijuana, where she was left to fend for herself.

Police are looking for Valentin Gonzalez, 22, who for two years was a boarder at her parents’ apartment. Garden Grove Lt. John Woods said Gonzalez is wanted for questioning in the alleged abduction and is believed to be in Mexico.

The girl, a sixth-grader at Dr. A.J. Cook Elementary School, allegedly was abducted by Gonzalez at about 2:30 p.m. Friday as she walked home from school with friends, according to police. Gonzalez had moved out of the home he shared with the girl’s family four days before the alleged abduction, police said.

Authorities declined to discuss charges that could be filed against Gonzalez. Woods said the girl was “too shook” up Tuesday to take part in the criminal investigation.

“She’s going to be interviewed by the Child Abuse Services team (today) and there will also be a physical exam. We hope to know more about what happened after that,” said Woods.

In a brief talk Tuesday at the family’s modest apartment, the girl said Gonzalez surprised her as she walked home with four friends and allegedly pulled her into an empty car parked about two blocks away.

“He just grabbed me and took me,” said the dark-eyed girl. “He took me. I didn’t want to go with him.”

During the interview, the young girl had difficulty concentrating and frequently got up to hug her 1-year-old brother and squeeze a stuffed toy. She responded in brief, often one-word answers.

After leaving Orange County, she said, Gonzalez Friday drove with her to Tijuana and checked into a seedy downtown hotel that night. The girl said Gonzalez threatened to harm her if she screamed for help.

The parents reported her missing Friday to police. They learned Saturday their daughter was in Tijuana from Gonzalez’s sister, Irene Gonzalez, who also lives in Garden Grove. She told the girl’s parents Saturday morning that her brother had called from Tijuana and said he had their daughter.

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After checking out of the hotel, Gonzalez apparently called his sister and she told him that police were looking for him and his name was in the newspapers and on television, the girl said in an interview with The Times.

“He talked to his sister and got real scared. He said that my picture was in all the newspapers and on the TV news, and the police were looking for him,” said the girl. “Then he told me to wait on the street for him, but he disappeared.”

The girl’s parents said she was unfamiliar with Tijuana and did not know how to get to the port-of-entry to return to the United States and could not find police. In the interview, she said she wandered around the city for three days, without food, and slept on the street for two nights.

On Monday, with the help of a merchant she managed to call her parents collect from a pay phone and continued calling several times throughout the day. The problem was that she had no idea where in Tijuana she was and no one was able to help her, the father said.

Late Monday night she called again and told the parents she was on the Mexican side at the port of entry, which she recognized. The frantic parents arranged for two friends to drive to Tijuana and pick her up. Garden Grove police assisted by writing a letter to immigration officials, saying she was the victim of a crime and asking them to allow the girl to return to Garden Grove.

“Bless the police. They’ve been nothing but good to us,” said the girl’s father. “I have nothing but good things to say about the officers who helped us.”

On Tuesday, the girl said she drew comfort throughout her ordeal by looking at the photos of her two younger brothers, who are 1 and 3, which she carries in her wallet. Along with the pictures of her brothers, she also had pictures of dolls and figurines, which she cut out of magazines.