O.C. Teen Reported Abducted Found Dead

The deepest fears of urban life tore through the heart of suburban Orange County on Wednesday, as family and friends of 17-year-old Chad MacDonald Jr. struggled to understand the mysterious circumstances that led to his death and the dumping of his body in a South Los Angeles alley.

Attackers held MacDonald and a 16-year-old girlfriend hostage for three days before killing MacDonald and taking the Yorba Linda teen to the Angeles National Forest, where she said she was raped and shot at the entrance to a corrugated metal drainage pipe before the attackers drove off, authorities said Wednesday.

She later crawled out of the ravine and flagged down a passing motorist for help. Shot in the jaw, she remains in satisfactory condition at County-USC Medical Center, officials said. Authorities are relying upon her to help piece together what happened, and why. As many as three assailants took part in the attack, officials believe. An autopsy report indicates MacDonald was strangled.

“The incident is still kind of sketchy for us at this point,” Los Angeles Sheriff’s Sgt. David Halm said. “The detectives are still trying to sort out all the details.”

So were Yorba Linda residents and friends of the victims, who pondered how two of their children could meet up with such tragedy. It was only a few months ago that another local boy was murdered after a concert in Corona. The events have stunned a community that prides itself on being home to the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace and the “last true Main Street USA,” where residents can still ride their horses downtown and tether their mounts while they shop.

“We’re pretty shook up at this point,” said Councilman John M. Gullixson. “You know, you get several of these things back to back and it gives you pause. We have a community here where people feel pretty safe and they feel pretty secure and they’re mixing with people who are playing with a whole different set of rules.”

At the MacDonald family’s beige stucco home, family and friends gathered Wednesday to share their grief.

Flowers, condolence notes and other mementos were placed in the driveway, turning MacDonald’s souped-up white Nissan truck into a makeshift memorial by friends and relatives who arrived throughout the day to pay tribute.

Someone posted a sign that read: “We love you Chad” and included a heart-shaped frame with a picture of a 12-year-old MacDonald.

Grief also turned to anger as the media camped down the street from the home. At one point, one of the victim’s relatives allegedly went after a Channel 2 cameraman with a hammer. James Harlan Hodges, 41, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault, Brea Police Sgt. Bob Bugbee said.

But several neighbors, including Jeff Carroll, were willing to share their thoughts about MacDonald, considered by many to be a bit shy but also a little rambunctious with those he knew well. Carroll, 17, said he was shocked by the death of MacDonald, whom he considered a friend.

“He was always really outgoing, a real nice guy,” Carroll said.

The murder victim and his 16-year-old girlfriend attended Esperanza High School in Anaheim, but MacDonald recently transferred to an alternative high school, officials said. Esperanza students were horrified by the news, and on Wednesday clustered together as they tried to understand what had happened.

Principal Ray Plutko said youths were receiving crisis intervention counseling throughout the day at the 3,000-student school that serves mostly Placentia and Yorba Linda.

“You hope you never get in these situations, but [the crisis intervention sessions] went pretty well and will go on for as long as necessary,” he said.

Another friend of MacDonald, James Chiong, 20, of Newport Beach, said he also was surprised to learn about the tragedy.

Chiong, who has known MacDonald for more than two years, met him through the several Orange County-based car clubs the two belonged to, including ones called “Twisted,” and “Visual Perfection” and another with an unsettling name: “Fatal Intentions.”

Members hung out together to compare notes on upgrading their vehicles, and admire each other’s cars. MacDonald, who bought his white Nissan truck for about $8,000, put an additional $5,000--”every paycheck he got”--into improvements such as lowering the vehicle, Chiong said.

“Everyone knew him from his truck, it was a real noticeable truck,” Chiong said.

The initial impression MacDonald made upon others was that he was shy and withdrawn.

“At first, he was quiet and in the down-low, but if you got to know him better, he was really open and outgoing,” Chiong said.

Chiong said he was still reeling from the news and couldn’t imagine why anyone would harm or kill MacDonald.

Authorities have declined to discuss a possible motive, saying the investigation is still in the early stages. What little information they have comes from the 16-year-old girlfriend, whose name is not being released.

The teen told deputies she took her mother’s car Sunday to meet her boyfriend at a house in Norwalk. There, at least two men took the pair hostage. They were beaten and she told authorities that she believed MacDonald was stabbed a number of times, investigators said.

On Tuesday morning, she said, the assailants forced them into two cars and drove them to the Angeles National Forest. She said one of the vehicles--her mother’s Saturn--had a flat tire on the way. The Saturn was abandoned, and the teenagers were transferred to the other car and driven to a heavily wooded area about 12 miles north of Azusa, she told authorities.

“We assume the girl was taken there and left to die,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Cruz Solis.

A motorist spotted the wounded, partially clad teen walking down California 39 at East Fork Road near San Gabriel Reservoir on Tuesday morning and drove her to a nearby fire station. A county Fire Department helicopter took her to the county’s medical center, where she was being treated for a gunshot wound in the jaw.

“The girl was under the impression that they left her boyfriend in the same area” of the forest, Solis said. But that information proved wrong as authorities searched the area without success. Investigators found MacDonald’s body Tuesday afternoon and but he was not positively identified until Wednesday.

The Saturn, which she said had been abandoned on the side of the road in the Norwalk area, was found by police in a Baldwin Park impound Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

On Wednesday, detectives were still searching for the assailants, and their vehicle.

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Times staff writer Valerie Burgher and the Associated Press contributed to this report.