Police Pursue Tips in Boy’s Kidnapping

Phone tips from across two states kept investigators working overtime Sunday to find a 10-year-old boy snatched at knifepoint outside his house.

But the task force of police, Riverside County deputies and FBI agents had “nothing at all” new in the Friday abduction of Anthony Michael Martinez, police Lt. John Acosta said.

The boy was kidnapped by a white, mustachioed man who asked him to help look for a lost cat, authorities said. Police ruled out family involvement. They described the man as 25 to 35 years old, with a thin build and blue eyes.

On Sunday, three bloodhounds joined the search, tracing the boy’s scent to Interstate 10. They were going offramp to offramp to discover how far he may have been driven, Acosta said.

“They went to the school and they picked up the scent from his desk and gave it to the dogs,” Acosta said. “The dogs followed the trail from where the child was taken. It all heads toward the freeway.”

Investigators were contacting known sex offenders in the area.

A composite sketch was taped in the windows of stores and restaurants in this farm and ranch town. “We’re continuing our search, following up on a lot of leads coming in from the [news] media coverage,” said Acosta.

The task force was getting an average of five to six calls an hour, from as far away as Arizona and Northern California, but most were dead ends. “We’re not discounting any of them,” Acosta said.

“We’re still hopeful. We still believe in God, that he’ll bring him home,” said Kim Rivera, the boy’s aunt.

The syndicated show “America’s Most Wanted” arrived Sunday to tape a segment about the case, and a national anti-child abuse group put a notice on its World Wide Web site, Acosta said.

The boy has brown hair and eyes, is 4-foot-10 and weighs 70 pounds. He was wearing a white T-shirt, light blue jeans, black sneakers and a Dallas Cowboys hat.