Task Force Grows in Hunt for South Bay Molester

There are now 150 detectives on the case of the South Bay child molester, the man in the gray van who is wanted in a string of molestations and attempted abductions in the last six months.

That is more investigators than the FBI had working the Unabomber case. It is also testament to what happens when television news, children, sexual violence and parental fears coalesce.

In the two weeks since a law enforcement task force was created to hunt down the molester, the public has called in 1,100 leads. Parents in the molester’s territory--a southern patch of Los Angeles County--have shadowed their children to school and playgrounds. Television has chronicled every new report of a kidnapping attempt by the goateed man suspected of two rapes, four molestations and five attempted abductions since January.

County supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council are offering a combined reward of $15,000. Authorities keep adding detectives to the case.

“A child molester is a very significant issue with law enforcement,” said Police Sgt. Bill Thompson of Inglewood, where a 7-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped. “You’re talking about innocent victims who can’t protect themselves and who depend on adults to take care of them.”

It’s the kind of case that grips at society’s heart, one sexual abuse expert noted, even though other dangers may be more common.

“I think [parents] should be concerned about the South Bay molester, but they should be more worried about the guns on the street,” said Ferol Mennen, a USC associate professor of social work. “Their children are more at risk from that.”

The molester is an easy, clearly defined target. “This is something people can do something about,” Mennen added. “It’s very difficult to do something about the proliferation of guns. But parents can alert their children and law enforcement can catch the guy and everybody can feel good.”

He hasn’t been caught yet, however, and those who live in the molester’s territory wonder why, and whether police did enough early on. At a Tuesday night community meeting at George Washington High School, some parents angrily questioned police and sheriff’s representatives about why a task force wasn’t created until two weeks ago, nearly six months after the first molestation.

“They are livid. They are furious,” Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi said of local parents.

Described as a thin, tall African American who drives a gray van with a burgundy stripe, the molester has proven elusive. Despite the massive number of possible sightings phoned into the task force hotline, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Ron Spear said investigators do not have a suspect. Several men have been arrested by different law enforcement agencies, only to be quickly released.

The man is believed to have first struck Jan. 22, when two girls were abducted in Ladera Heights and molested. Six weeks later a 10-year-old girl was kidnapped from Los Angeles’ Vermont district and raped. Since late May there have been a series of other incidents in the Lennox area, South Los Angeles and adjacent communities. In all but one report--an attempted kidnapping involving a boy--the children have been girls, 6 to 10 years old.

This month five unsuccessful abduction attempts have been reported. Although there were no witnesses in most of those episodes, Spear said investigators trained to interview children found no reason to discount the reports. All are being taken seriously.

The search for the right gray van has been a frustrating one. Authorities don’t know the make, and motor vehicle records do not include a vehicle’s color. “That really opens it up to tens of thousands” of vans, Spear said.

Some luckless drivers have been pulled over several times. The Sheriff’s Department even hands out a letter to those who have been stopped, apologizing for the inconvenience.

Lt. Mark Aguirre of the sheriff’s Lennox station said the drivers have been cooperative and friendly, but some have reached the point where “they want to get rent-a-car.”

Staffed by detectives from the Sheriff’s Department as well as the Los Angeles and various South Bay police departments, the task force divides the public’s tips into categories ranging from hot to cold. Among the worst: the tipster who sent in a photograph of a white male with a mustache.

The more publicity the case gets, the more tips come in and the more investigators are added to follow them up. The LAPD is planning to assign an additional 20 detectives, which will boost the task force to 170. The majority have been supplied by the Sheriff’s Department.

About 100 police officers and detectives were deployed in a similar series of 1993 assaults on San Fernando Valley schoolchildren by the “Valley molester,” who has never been caught and is believed to be responsible for 32 attacks on children. At the height of the FBI Unabomber investigation, 125 agents and crime analysts were assigned to the case, according to an agency spokesman. And during the investigation of the notorious “Night Stalker” killings a decade ago, the Sheriff’s Department assigned 24 detectives.

The massive manhunt is justified in the South Bay molester case, department officials said, because of the mobility of the criminal and the volume of tips coming in.

“The guy does exist. He is out there,” Spear said. “As long as you can put this kind of manpower to it . . . I don’t see how we cannot. There’s no other way to follow up in a timely manner.”

Los Angeles defense attorney and former prosecutor Harland Braun sees the interplay of public concern, media coverage and law enforcement as both good and bad.

“Law enforcement [agencies] are just political organizations,” Braun said. “They respond to public pressure. So they’re news driven. . . . It’s democracy on the one hand . . . and it’s bad because it can distort limited resources.”

Residential neighborhoods where attempted abductions have been reported resemble ghost towns now that summer vacation has begun. Children are confined to their backyards or play in the front only under the watchful eyes of an adult.

For some in high-crime areas, such close supervision has been routine. For others, it is a new way of life.

Pam Moore has devised several ways of diverting her 11-year-old son and 7-year-old grandson, who go to a Hawthorne elementary school attended by two of the molester’s reported victims.

“I buy video games, take them to the movies, make some fun for them and keep my eye on them,” Moore said.

Nadean Harris, who lives in an unincorporated county area, has her two young sons play in a backyard behind a locked gate. “My kids can’t even ride their bikes or skate out on the street,” she said.

In Inglewood, Velma Thomas and Kentrice Watkins sat in front of Thomas’ house watching Watkins’ 6-year-old son. But this is nothing new for them. “Basically everyone has always sat out with their kids” because of safety concerns, Watkins said. Thomas is nonetheless spending more time in her front yard, keeping her eye out for a gray van.

Mennen, the USC associate professor, said children’s reactions to the case will be largely determined by their parents. While she said parents should caution youngsters and not let them walk alone in areas where the molester has been reported, they should also help their children keep the matter in perspective.

Bettina Boxall is a Times staff writer; Deborah Belgum is a South Bay correspondent for The Times.

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South Bay Manhunt

Here is the police description of the South Bay child molester.

Height: 6 feet

Weight: 170 pounds

Age: 30 to 50 years

Race: African American

Description: Has a goatee, mustache and short curly hair.

Vehicle: Gray van with burgundy stripes.