Photo of Missing Girl Mailed Across U.S.

The search for a missing 2-year-old Ventura girl will get national exposure this week when cards featuring a picture of Stephanie Nicole Quiroz are mailed to 61 million homes across the country.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Pam Grossman said Stephanie’s father, who did not have custody of the toddler, took the baby from her home the night of Sept. 27, 1994, while her mother was at work.

Grossman said she suspects Ismael Preciado Quiroz, 36, may be living somewhere in the United States under an assumed name.

Stephanie’s mother, Theresa Pillado, said the toddler’s father could be hiding in Mexico with the child.

Pillado, a 39-year-old Ventura resident, said she is hoping the mass mailing will generate new leads.

“We are very confident,” Pillado said. “Somebody might have seen them and somebody could call. Or somebody from here may have relatives over there [in Mexico].”

ADVO Inc., a Connecticut-based direct-mail firm, said the card mailing would reach about 10.6 million homes in California. Since the company launched its America’s Looking For Its Missing Children program in 1985, it has helped safely recover 77 children.

Stephanie has brown hair, brown eyes and weighed 35 pounds when she disappeared, Pillado said.

“I just want my little girl back,” Pillado said.