Police Search for Girl, 8, Apparently Taken From Bed

Police and bloodhounds searched Friday for an 8-year-old girl apparently taken from her mother’s bed by someone who forced his way into the apartment through a window, police said.

Nicole Amaro’s abduction would be the second such incident in Orange County in a month. A 7-year-old girl was carried out of her bed in Tustin on June 30, but family members gave chase and forced the abductor to release her.

Nicole was last seen about 10 a.m. in her mother’s bedroom, wearing a green bathrobe, a white T-shirt and underwear. She is blonde with brown eyes, 4 feet tall and 45 pounds.

Nicole’s mother, Lori Amaro, 29, had been driven to work in Los Angeles on Friday morning by her boyfriend, Robert Granger, 34, police said. When Granger returned to the apartment he shares with Amaro about 10 a.m., he noticed Nicole asleep.

Granger and Nicole’s 10-year-old brother, Tommy, were in and out of the two-bedroom apartment for the next 1 1/2 hours. When Granger checked the bedroom again about 11:30 a.m., he noticed Nicole missing and signs of a break-in, said Sylvia Palmer, a police spokeswoman.

Granger told police he searched in vain for the child and then called the mother about 1:30 p.m., Palmer said. The mother arrived at the house about 2:30 p.m. Palmer said.

“They also noticed there appeared to be some valuables missing, jewelry, a handgun and one of those little portable fire safes, more like a locked box,” Fullerton Police Lt. Tony Hernandez said.

About 20 police officers using three bloodhounds searched the neighborhood surrounding the 88-unit apartment complex in the 2400 block of West Orangethorpe Avenue.

Police said it appeared that someone came in through the window of the mother’s bedroom, which opens onto an alley.

Barbara Rawlings, manager of Regency Villas, said: “I personally don’t believe that Nicki would run away with someone she didn’t know.” Rawlings, who spoke with Nicole’s mother throughout the day, said she’s “holding up under the circumstances.”

The Orange County cases follow the kidnaping and murder of Polly Klaas last fall.