Man Who Returned Missing Girl Is Arrested

A transient with a prior child molestation conviction was arrested Friday on suspicion of kidnappings and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old Maywood girl who had disappeared from her mother’s side two days earlier outside a Huntington Park insurance office, authorities said.

Police are holding Juan Razo Ramirez, 31, of Inglewood on $1 million bail and plan to file several felony charges against him Monday.

Ramirez arrived at the Huntington Park police station Thursday night with the child riding on the handlebars of his bicycle. He turned the girl, who had been the subject of a massive search, over to police and, in a bizarre impromptu news conference, told reporters that he had found her wandering the streets and tried to reunite her with her mother.

But after police interrogated Ramirez, they said he confessed to taking the girl in a taxi to an abandoned Inglewood warehouse where he repeatedly assaulted her. They declined to discuss details of the assault but said the girl was not raped.

Huntington Park Police Lt. Ken Rulon said the girl has been examined by doctors and is in good condition.

The girl’s mother, visibly shaken Friday morning, thanked police for launching a massive search that involved nearly 100 investigators, bloodhounds, helicopters and infrared cameras.

“I’m very happy that my child is with me,” she said outside the police station. “Thanks to everyone who helped and thanks to God.”

The mother said her daughter appears unhurt and is resting at home with family members. She declined to discuss the details of her daughter’s abduction.

But in a strange twist, some family members praised Ramirez for returning the girl and rejected any suggestion that he might have assaulted her.

“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” the girl’s aunt, Gloria Martinez, said in an interview. She suggested that police coerced Ramirez into confessing--a contention that police reject.

“I believe him because the system is the way it is,” Martinez said.

Another aunt, Rosa Esparza, simply shook her head when asked about the reported confession. “It’s hard to believe,” she said.

The case began Wednesday night when the girl’s mother took her daughter with her as she went to an insurance office on Zoe Avenue in Huntington Park to make a car insurance payment. According to office employees, the girl wandered out to the street when the mother turned her back for a few minutes to talk to an employee.

The disappearance sparked an intense search that included a survey of the sewers using infrared cameras beneath a five-block radius of the insurance office. At the request of Huntington Park police, the FBI sent 50 agents to help.

About 8:45 p.m. Thursday, police said, Ramirez appeared in front of the Huntington Park police station with the girl.

Ramirez, who identified himself to police and the media Thursday as Juan Manuel, said the girl appeared to be lost when he found her on the street.

He told reporters that he escorted her to various businesses, trying to determine where her mother was. Eventually, he said, he gave up and took her to his home for a meal.

But Rulon said that when Ramirez’s image appeared on the evening television news, several police agencies called to say they recognized him and said he was using an alias.

Rulon said detectives determined that Ramirez was previously convicted of a “child annoyance” charge, but the lieutenant said he could not provide the date or location of the molestation conviction.

State criminal court records show 15 separate criminal charges in the last nine years against a Los Angeles County man named Juan Razo Ramirez, but it could not be determined if those involved the man held by Huntington Park police.

A cabdriver who contacted police Thursday night after learning about the kidnapping on television said he drove a man and a child who fit the description of the missing girl to the Inglewood warehouse, Rulon said.

Rulon said police uncovered pornographic material in the warehouse. He added that Ramirez made a living selling flowers to passengers at Los Angeles International Airport.

In another strange twist, Huntington Park police said they are considering filing charges against a television reporter for allegedly interfering in the case.

Rulon said a reporter from Spanish-language station KWHY-TV Channel 22 was near the front of the police station when Ramirez showed up with the girl. After Ramirez entered the police station lobby, Rulon said, the reporter pulled Ramirez and the girl out of the station to get an interview. Police rushed out of the building to retrieve Ramirez and the girl, Rulon said.

Martin Dugan, general manager of the television station, said the reporter, Juan De La Paz, did not intentionally interfere with the case.

He added that the station will cooperate with police.

“We have a great relationship with the Police Department,” he said.