Boy Returned to His Mother After Possible Kidnap Try

Police on Tuesday were searching for a woman who was seen with a 2-year-old boy before he was taken from a playground at the Oxnard welfare office and left at an El Rio video store Monday.

“We are not saying the lady is a suspect at this time, but we are looking at her as a possible witness and would like to speak with her,” Det. Bruce Reed said.

Police initially considered the incident a potential child-abandonment case but now are treating it as a kidnapping.

The incident began when 19-year-old Dina Martha Dominguez of Port Hueneme allowed her son to visit the playground of the Ventura County Welfare Department on Vanguard Street while she was in the lobby filling out paperwork with her 6-month-old son.

“The playground area is a semi-secured area, where you have to go into the building . . . to reach it,” Reed said.

After completing the paperwork, Dominguez returned to retrieve her older son when she met a woman who told her she would watch the child while Dominguez turned the packet into the receptionist, Reed said.

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But when the mother returned 10 minutes later both the child and woman were gone, he said.

While Dominguez was searching for her son, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department received a call about 1:30 p.m. that a 2-year-old boy had walked into El Rio Video on Stroube Street with a note pinned to his shirt saying in both English and Spanish that “this child is for you, he doesn’t have a mother.”

Because the child could not provide information about his identity or residence, he was taken into protective custody until his parents could be located.

Meanwhile, Dominguez was still searching for her son.

Although the county’s welfare offices are staffed with security guards, Dominguez did not tell anyone at the Vanguard Street office that her child was missing.

“None of the staff had been informed of the situation,” said Barbara Fitzgerald, director of the county’s Public Social Services Agency. “If they had been, they would have immediately alerted the guard and contacted the police. But she said nothing.”

It was not until about three hours after her son disappeared that Dominguez contacted Port Hueneme police, who referred her to Oxnard police because the incident occurred in Oxnard.

The child remained in a foster home overnight “because there were some inconsistencies in the mother’s story,” Reed said, adding that the three-hour lapse contributed to the decision.

By Tuesday morning, however, detectives said they felt comfortable reuniting the boy with his mother.

“She was afraid and thought she would get in trouble for leaving the child unattended in the play area,” Reed said. “She felt guilty about it.”

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Police took samples of the mother’s handwriting to compare it to the handwriting on the note that was pinned to the boy’s shirt. Results will be available later next week.

“You don’t leave any stone unturned,” Reed said. “We’re checking into everything, with the mother still being considered. But everything the mother has told us up to this time has been confirmed. . . . There were inconsistencies, but she was afraid.”

Reed said police are looking into several possibilities.

“Someone might have been trying to make the mother look bad for some reason,” Reed said. “Or the abductor might have gotten cold feet and decided not to go through with it.”

No similar incidents have occurred at the Oxnard welfare office. Police have contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to see if there are any similarities in other cases around the country.

The woman who was last seen with the child is described as being Spanish-speaking and in her early 30s, about 5 feet 5 and 150 pounds. She has a heavy build, black, curly, shoulder-length hair and dark eyes. She was wearing a red short-sleeved blouse and black pants. She had four stud earrings in each ear and rings on every finger.

The Oxnard Police Department is asking that anyone with information contact either Reed at 385-7759 or Det. Robert Cox at 385-7606.