Mother Pleads for Return of Missing 5-Year-Old Girl

Police and the mother of a missing 5-year-old girl pleaded Saturday for the return of the child after a suspect reportedly drove off with her.

“Her mother wants her back very, very much,” said Capt. Robert McNamara of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

Joanna Lopez disappeared around 10 p.m. Friday from her apartment in the 6600 block of Sepulveda Boulevard after she asked her mother if she could accompany the man, identified as Raul Rodriguez, on an errand.

Rodriguez, an acquaintance of the family, was moving packages from a white, 1994 Ford Aerostar van.

Police, who are investigating the incident as a kidnapping, cautioned they don’t know of a motive or whether Rodriguez has a criminal record because his name could be an alias. He is described as a transient who had done odd jobs in the neighborhood for about a year.

On Saturday, police continued their search for Rodriguez, along with other state law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Border Patrol and, because Rodriguez had previously talked about going to Las Vegas, the FBI and Nevada authorities.

“It’s unusual because this isn’t a case where a stranger jumped out of the bushes and kidnapped a little girl,” McNamara said after a Saturday news conference. “I made a personal plea [to Rodriguez] because I don’t know what his state of mind is. He may have taken [Joanna] for a drive, come back late, saw the police cars, got scared and took off. We want him to know that Joanna is our first priority.”

Joanna’s mother, Delmi Estrada, 24, had known Rodriguez for a year.

Police said residents of the apartment complex where Joanna lived with her mother and a 2-year-old brother trusted Rodriguez, who was friendly and earned food and shelter by raking leaves and doing other odds jobs. He regularly played with the children, including once dressing up as a clown.

“Joanna thought of Mr. Rodriguez as a grandfather figure,” Estrada said through a Spanish interpreter. The family trusted him and “did not think of him as a bad person,” she added.

Estrada, a small, polite woman who maintained her composure throughout most of the news conference, started to cry when she talked about Joanna.

“Please return my daughter,” she begged through tears.

Joanna is described as 3 feet tall, weighing 42 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a pink sweatsuit with a brown bear on the front and black sandals with flowers on them.

Rodriguez is a Latino in his mid- to late 40s who looks younger than his age. He is about 5-foot-7 and weighs between 150 and 165 pounds.

Police said Rodriguez has a physical trait in which the area between his rib cage and bellybutton is sunken while the area between his bellybutton and groin protrudes.

The van, which belongs to Estrada’s friend and has been reported as stolen, has a license plate number of 3HPX246.

Police asked that anyone who sees Joanna, Rodriguez or the van call the Van Nuys police watch commander at (818) 756-8346 or the LAPD’s 24-hour phone line at (213) 485-2504.