Anaheim Girl, 10, Vanishes

The last time Teresa Padilla saw her niece and foster daughter, 10-year-old Erica Hernandez was heading out the door, a trash bag in her hands.

The bag never made it to the garbage receptacles outside Erica’s spartan-looking Anaheim apartment building Monday, police said, and the fourth-grader hasn’t been seen since.

“She never put the trash in the dumpster,” Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez said. “We have nothing, nothing we can hang our hats on.”

Erica’s relatives are stumped too. Did Erica leave in a planned rendezvous with some relative, wander off on her own, or was she abducted?

Anaheim and Fullerton detectives have interviewed neighbors and Erica’s biological parents, including her mother, who is Padilla’s older sister and is in jail. Both parents say they don’t know where their daughter is. Police also are trying to contact Erica’s teenage sister.

Padilla and others do know that Erica has pined for her parents, even though family members say neither she nor her younger sister, Lupita, were treated well when they lived with their parents.

“She loved her mother and father, no matter what,” said Padilla, 29, who with her husband, Jose, were granted custody of Erica more than two years ago. Padilla said her sister had drug problems.

Erica’s cousin Gabriela, 9, who attended Betsy Ross Elementary School with Erica, said her cousin spoke often about being reunited with her parents.

“She used to say she wanted to go with her mom,” Gabriela said of Erica, who was quieter than her more rambunctious cousins. The two girls were close, and even had the same hairstyle.

“We used to wake up really early in the morning to play,” Gabriela said. A favorite game was pretending the other children were babies in their care, Gabriela said.

Although the younger children continued to play in the living room Tuesday, seemingly unaware of the gravity of the situation, a worried Gabriela chewed on her nails and sucked nervously on her thumb Tuesday afternoon.

Erica occasionally spoke with her mother and father, as well as at least one older stepsister, Padilla said. Erica occasionally saw Lupita, who was living in Chino with foster parents. Nine months ago, the Padillas, immigrants from Mexico, got custody of Lupita.

“Erica was really happy about that,” Padilla said. Because Erica was so calm, “such a good girl” and rarely wandered from the duplex apartment, Padilla said she has a hard time believing her niece would have left voluntarily.

However, every alternative seems equally if not more frightening, she said.

“No one saw anything. I don’t know if she left because she wanted to or because someone forced her,” Padilla said. “I’m very worried about her and where she can be.”

For their part, police were continuing to gather clues Tuesday about Erica’s disappearance.

“We’re calling everyone we can,” Martinez said.

Erica was last seen wearing a black vest-type blouse with red print sleeves, black shorts and blue-and-white shoes. Anyone with information about her is asked to call the Anaheim Police Department at (714) 765-1900 or Det. Steve Witham at (714) 765-1960.