Family Fears Missing Teen Was Lured Away by Internet Contacts

Whenever they would part, Veronica Lofthouse remembers, it became almost a ritual for her family of five in Alhambra to tell one another, “I love you.”

But the last time she saw her youngest daughter, Lofthouse said Monday, something was different.

“This time, she said, ‘I love you Mommy,’ ” Lofthouse, 53, said. “The emphasis was different . . . it was like she was saying goodbye.”

Since last Friday afternoon, 15-year-old Sarah Lofthouse has been missing after withdrawing $200 in cash at a Vons in Pasadena.

Alhambra police have classified the teenager as missing, noting that Sarah contacted a friend by telephone just before 3 p.m. Monday. “At this time, there is no evidence . . . that any foul play is involved,” Alhambra Police Lt. David Nater said in a statement Monday.

But the family of Sarah, described as sweet-natured but troubled, fear she has been spirited away--perhaps by someone she met over the Internet in a Web site dedicated to witchcraft.

“I think a group has her,” an anguished Paul Lofthouse said Monday as reporters descended upon the family’s home along a quiet street lined with magnolia trees.

Last Friday, say family members, Sarah Lofthouse as always finished her last class at Alverno High School in Sierra Madre, at 1 p.m. But instead of coming home, they say, she walked toward nearby Pasadena, accepting a ride en route from a girlfriend’s mother who dropped her off at the supermarket.

Before disappearing, family members say, Sarah not only borrowed a blue knit cap from her mother but quietly rounded up some favorite letters and photos.

“If you were to put together a collage of Sarah, these are the [photos and letters] you would pick,” said her eldest sister, Annie, 21.

But while the planning would suggest to some that the teenager was a runaway, Annie Lofthouse and her parents say there was no indication that Sarah was desperate to leave.

“There was no fight, no note,” Annie Lofthouse said Monday. “Usually, they say, a runaway comes back within 24 hours. But she’s been gone now for 72 [hours].”

Family members say they believe Sarah has been coaxed into leaving.

For the past year or so, they say, the 5-foot-4, 220-pound Sarah had retreated often into the world of the Internet, riveted for hours on a computer that sits on a desk in the family’s front living room.

“My sister was very involved in the Internet and had ‘friends’ all over,” said Annie Lofthouse, a student at UC Santa Barbara.

But it wasn’t until her sister’s disappearance, Annie Lofthouse said, that the family pried into Sarah’s Internet correspondence, desperate for clues on how or why she vanished.

“Her friends said she was very secretive regarding the Internet,” said Annie Lofthouse, who found a recent e-mail message referring to the pagan religion Wicca.

Family members said the Internet discoveries, like Sarah’s disappearance, caught them by surprise. “The last time I saw her, we all had dinner in Santa Barbara,” said Annie Lofthouse. “It was great . . . she seemed happy as ever.”

And the night before she vanished, Paul Lofthouse, 53, said, his daughter insisted that he not order dessert at a nearby restaurant where the family had dinner. “She made me a Valentine’s cake,” he said.

Although police said Monday they have found no evidence of an Internet connection to the case, they said they will have the family’s computer examined to see whether it contains any clues to the teenager’s whereabouts.

Meanwhile, the girl’s family received word of another cash withdrawal--for $140 from a bank machine in Indianapolis. “We don’t have any acquaintances there,” said Paul Lofthouse, convinced that the latest transaction proves his daughter is with someone, or a group, she met via the Internet.

“All I want her to do is come back,” he said. “I want her to know that the family loves her . . . and that whatever it is she is going through we will work it out together.”