A Parent’s Worst Fear Come True

It is every parent’s greatest nightmare--a child’s death, not from leukemia or a car accident, not from drowning or fire.

At least then you could blame carelessness or health or yourself or God.

You fear the stranger. The predator. Someone with an ice-cold heart and a void soul, who steals your child, commits unspeakable violence and then leaves your child as lifeless as a broken, discarded rag doll.

You fear the kind of man who, on April 4, approached a group of Beaumont playmates and kidnapped 10-year-old Anthony Michael Martinez at knifepoint, leaving him to be found dead 16 days later in the desert.

The kidnapping and murder of a child by a stranger is among the rarest--and most terrifying--of crimes. It leaves parents raw with fear, children confused and distrustful, and police--armed with limited forensic evidence and thousands of mostly useless public tips--looking for a monster.

Dr. Louis Jolyon West, a psychiatrist at the UCLA School of Medicine who specializes in the study of violence, says Anthony’s killer might best be described as a “great white shark.” He is not just a pedophile, but someone who is “profoundly pathological,” West said, someone who cruises for prey, strikes with opportunity and will probably lie low--unless he’s caught--until the tension builds within him to randomly strike again.

While there are exceptions to any abstract profile, this person was probably physically or sexually abused as a child by a man, is now gripped by an uncontrollable force to deliver sexual violence and is ultimately gratified by the possession--and death--of his victim, West and other experts say.

Special Agent Jeff Rinek of the FBI’s Sacramento office said, “A great, vast majority of them have been abused as children, most likely by a male. . . . I look at it as the bite of the werewolf.”

In Anthony’s case, the killer struck in daylight and in front of young witnesses “because, once he saw the child he wanted, the force of his pathological desire to abduct the child overcame any caution that he may have felt,” West said.

He may be a drifter, cordial but otherwise a loner, who is far away by now and gets money through crime or odd jobs. And his next attack may be so equally random that he may never be caught.

Lt. Glenn Breitenstein, in the homicide squad of the San Diego Police Department, says child abduction murders pose unique and often daunting challenges, even for experienced investigators.

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In most adult murders, the killer knows the victim, adults witness the events leading to it, and the body is found relatively soon. But in child murders, he said, there usually are less credible witnesses, if any, the victim doesn’t know the assailant, and the body may not be found for days, compromising the forensic evidence.

Although there is little comprehensive data on the number of children who are abducted by non-family members, cases like Anthony’s--where a child is violently taken by a stranger, is missing for at least a night, or is taken more than 50 miles--occur between 200 and 300 times a year nationwide, according to figures compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

While the dominant motive in those cases is sexual, between 50 and 150 of those victims are killed, according to the center, which is designated by Congress as the national clearinghouse for issues involving missing children.

But unlike in the Beaumont case, about 74% of the victims are girls, and half are 12 or older, said Ernie Allen, the center’s president. And, he said, about a quarter of the cases remain unsolved.

Chris Hatcher, a professor at UC San Francisco and the psychologist for the San Francisco Police Department, estimates that 66% of children abducted for sexual reasons are killed by their kidnappers.

While criminologists can trace child kidnapping murders back centuries, there was little national attention on child abductions outside of the infamous kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s son 65 years ago. Criminologists did not differentiate between homicidal child molesters and other killers, Hatcher said, and spotty data collection by local police agencies made it difficult for authorities to grasp the scope of the problem.

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Modern-day America first witnessed the horrors of abductions in the national media in 1981, when 6-year-old Adam Walsh was snatched from a Hollywood, Fla., shopping mall. Two weeks later, the boy’s head was found in a canal.

That grisly crime led to the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the television show “America’s Most Wanted,” hosted by Adam’s father, John Walsh.

Stories like Anthony’s are echoed elsewhere around the nation. Earlier this month, a 12-year-old Friendswood, Texas, girl disappeared during a morning jog; her body was found 17 days later in a pond. Last month, a 7-year-old Oak Harbor, Wash., girl was apparently abducted on her way to school; her body was found five days later on a remote, rocky island.

In California, authorities received 56 reports of children abducted by strangers in 1996, according to the state Department of Justice. By the end of the year, an additional 401 children were still missing after disappearing under “suspicious” or unknown circumstances, and it is unknown how many are now dead, authorities said.

The task force investigating Anthony’s killing, including the FBI, declined to comment on what evidence they have or how they are proceeding with their investigation.

But criminologists, FBI agents and other police investigators say the search for such a killer includes the questioning of known sex offenders, and a review of people recently released on probation or parole who might have been involved in similar crimes--or who were arrested but not convicted. Computers at state law enforcement and FBI criminal databanks are spitting out names.

Forensic evidence in Anthony’s case could include fingerprints on the duct tape used to bind his hands and feet, flakes of skin beneath his fingernails in case he scratched his assailant, and the contents of his stomach--which might tell what--and then, where--he last ate.

If the boy was sodomized, residue of semen could yield genetic information.

Even though Anthony’s body was nude--disrobed by the killer, either with sexual implications or perhaps to remove evidence of hair or fabric--his body might still provide trace evidence, experts say.

Hard-nosed police work notwithstanding, the killer might create his own undoing.

“The most serious offenders tend to push the envelope, take a few more risks because they were successful in the past, get too cocky and end up leaving too much evidence behind the next time they strike,” said Pete Smerick, a retired FBI agent and criminal profiler. He now works for the Academy Group, a private consulting firm in Manassas, Va., specializing in violent crime.

Or killers can be discovered through stupidity or carelessness.

Police in New York City last year didn’t even know a serial killer was on the loose--until a man on the way to a landfill was stopped for a malfunctioning car light and police found a body in his trunk, Smerick said.

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Similarly, a Riverside serial killer was captured in 1992--only after he was stopped for an illegal turn and the police officer recognized him from an artist’s sketch.

Short of such a break--or a tip from the public--police hope to narrow their list of suspects in Anthony’s death by profiling the killer based on the nature of the crime, to better understand his background and better predict his behavior. To that end, investigators are tapping the Profiling and Behavioral Assessment Unit at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va.

Unlike some criminals who eventually boast of their crimes, whether in a bar or to a cellmate--child killers are more secretive, said Breitenstein in San Diego.

Aside from the thrill of outwitting police investigators, psychopaths do not usually seek notoriety, West agreed. “More common is the type whose gratification comes from the actual possession and abuse of the victim,” he said.

“These people are builders, starting small and working their way up to increasingly more violent and horrific actions,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Det. Steve Hill. “They’re the people who have finally advanced in their . . . fantasies, where they have to act out for gratification.”

Such killers typically start their criminal journeys by taking photographs of children at playgrounds, then seek interaction with them, perhaps by bringing a puppy with them to attract attention, Hill said.

Indeed, in Anthony’s case, other witnesses reported later that they thought they had seen the suspect earlier in Beaumont, accompanied by a German shepherd puppy.

As he proceeds, the man may single out a particular type of child by age, race or gender--while, at the same time, be seeking child pornography on the Internet or through other pedophiles, Hill said.

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“Finally, [if] there was no satisfaction, along comes little Billy. And once you have one, there’s no incentive to release him unharmed. He’s a witness.”

Former FBI Agent Bob Barry, director of USC’s Center for the Administration of Justice, said the man who killed Anthony “is no pedophile, because they love kids. You’re talking about a predator who goes after children because they are very weak adversaries. The child was just an instrument to him, like a pair of pliers that he just snapped. It had no meaning for him.”

Barry speculated that the killer did not better hide Anthony’s body because he wanted it ultimately discovered, as a trophy of his deed. “And he probably kept something of the boy’s, as a souvenir.”

Experts say Anthony probably isn’t--or won’t be--his killer’s only victim. “For him to have acted that brazenly [in daylight and in front of witnesses], it’s not difficult to envision he’ll do it again,” said Dick Ault, another former FBI agent working at the Academy Group.

It is that fear that racks the nerves of parents and causes them, especially when the news is fresh and widespread, to overreact in protecting their children.

But kidnapping murder “is one of the least likely ways for a youngster to come to harm,” said Dr. Neil Hartman, an assistant professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences at the UCLA Medical Center.

Nationwide in 1994, 3,167 children through the age of 14 died in auto crashes, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An additional 1,011 died in fires.

“If people want to make a dent [in childhood deaths], they should make sure their children’s seat belts are buckled, and the baby locks are on the cupboard doors,” Hartman said. “But those kinds of deaths don’t hit the papers like kidnappings.”

It is natural, he said, for parents to become overly protective of their children in the immediate wake of a kidnapping like Anthony’s. “It’s a human defense, to over-respond and take certain actions that may seem foolish out of context, but in this context make sense,” Hartman said. “That will usually revert to a normal state after several weeks.”

But overreaction can foster ill effects, he warned.

Adults--especially child caretakers who are men, such as teachers, coaches, Scout leaders and clerics--may withdraw from physical contact with children, for fear their actions will be misinterpreted by the child or parents.

Likewise, children--especially those who have not been shielded from the gruesome details of violent kidnappings--might become phobic and avoid adult contact, or misinterpret it when it occurs, Hartman said.

“So normal relationships become skewed, and adults and kids become further apart from each other. It creates a climate of fear on both sides,” he said.

“But kids need nurturing. Physical comforting of children is very important to their mental health, and if you take that away, they don’t experience the normal developmental milestones properly and end up with depression later on,” Hartman said.

Fear of strangers can chill entire neighborhoods--and exacerbate potentially dangerous situations, said Marcus Felson, a Rutgers University criminologist.

“Part of community life is having people out and about--when people just naturally are watching out,” he said. “But if people are afraid to be out because of crime, that in itself could lead to opportunities for crime.”

Mark Stamper, pastor of the Pure Rock Christian Fellowship in Beaumont--which meets a few blocks from where Anthony was abducted--reflected on the fearful mood of his congregation during services last Sunday, when Anthony’s body was identified.

“We can’t let circumstances of life dictate that we live in fear,” he said. “Sure, we’ll all be more cautious. But I’m not going to live in fear.

“That’s something,” he said, “that I might talk about next Sunday.”

Times staff writer Tony Perry in San Diego and Times researcher Rebecca Andrade contributed to this story.

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Kidnapping in America

The most recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice on the incidence of child-kidnapping was issued in May, 1990. Among its findings were that, in any given year, there are as many as:

354,000 children abducted by family members.

114,600 attempted abductions of children by non-family members.

4,600 actual abductions of children by nonfamily members reported to police.

300 abductions of children by nonfamily members where the child was gone for a long period of time, or was never found, or was murdered.

OF THE CHILDREN ABDUCTED BY NONFAMILY MEMBERS

74% were girls.

62% of the perpetrators were strangers.

87% of the cases involved use of force.

8% of the cases involved a ransom request.

KIDNAPPING DEATHS

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that between 50 and 150 children are killed each year in kidnappings. For comparison, here is how kidnapping compared to other leading killers of children.

Deaths

Motor vehicle deaths: 3,167

All homicides: 1,355

Fire deaths: 1,011

Accidental drownings: 958

Pedestrian-traffic deaths: 854

Accidental suffocations: 691

Accidental shootings: 185

Kidnappings: 50 to 150*

Sources: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Justice. * Kidnapping figure is for a typical year; all other numbers for 1994.