Police Fruitlessly Search Field for Missing Girl, 3

Police scoured a field in Pomona throughout the day Saturday, searching for a 3-year-old girl whose mother reported her missing a week ago. But by sundown they had not found any trace of the child.

From 7 a.m. till dark, three detectives combed the field, aided by two criminalists from the county coroner’s office, an archeologist, officials from the county Fire Department, numerous volunteers and a search dog provided by the Sheriff’s Department, according to Pomona Police Sgt. Joann Crabb.

Police, who have been tight-lipped about the information that led them to the field and other details of the search, said no further information was developed as a result of searching the dirt lot in the 900 block of West Mission Boulevard. They will resume their investigation into the girl’s whereabouts today, Crabb said.

The mother of Alicia Versluis told police the child vanished last Sunday from a popular park about two miles from the storefront where the family lived.

A day after reporting the child missing, the mother, Simona Denise Demery, 19, and her live-in boyfriend, Jeffrey Jones, 24, were arrested and charged with felony child endangerment. Police said they found squalid conditions in the dwelling where the couple lived with Alicia and her twin sister, Ebony.

Demery, who was seven months pregnant, gave birth to a girl Tuesday in the jail ward of County-USC Medical Center; the baby was placed in protective custody, county authorities said.