Missing Girl Found; Man Arrested

A 15-year-old girl who was the subject of a massive police search was found by security guard Monday in a Van Nuys neighborhood, accompanied by a man whom police later arrested on suspicion of rape, authorities said.

The girl, who police said has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, was found about 4:30 p.m. in the 15000 block of Oxnard Avenue by a private security guard who saw her walking in an alley with an adult man, said Officer Don Cox of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Guillermo Perez Ayon, 37, a transient, was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail on suspicion of rape of an incompetent person, Cox said.

The guard recognized the girl from photographs that had been run on television and distributed on 1,300 leaflets along Ventura Boulevard, authorities said.

She had walked away from her home in Woodland Hills on Sunday afternoon, authorities said. She was last seen Sunday by a store clerk at a bus bench at the corner of Corbin Street and Ventura Boulevard between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., said Detective Bud Mehringer, juvenile coordinator at the West Valley Division.

Her disappearance prompted an intense search that began Sunday when authorities sent rescue teams equipped with search and tracking dogs into the hillside area above her home.