Abductor Killed by Shot in Head, Officials Say

A Rosamond man who kidnapped two teenage girls from a lover’s lane area overlooking Quartz Hill and raped them died of a gunshot wound to the head, Kern County officials said Monday.

A preliminary investigation into the death of Roy Dean Ratliff indicates that the 37-year-old man was killed by a bullet that struck his left cheek, Kern County Chief Deputy Coroner Jim Malouf and sheriff’s Det. Cmdr. Marty Williamson said.

Ratliff, whose criminal record began at age 7, was hit by two other bullets, one in the upper chest and one in the head. He also had cuts on his throat and bruises on his head, Williamson said.

Officials said that 17 shots were fired in the exchange between Ratliff and Kern County sheriff’s deputies and that a full review of the shooting is to be released later this week. The coroner’s final report will take several weeks to complete, pending the results of autopsy and toxicology reports.

Some of Ratliff’s injuries appeared to be consistent with accounts by the victims, who said in televised interviews that they fought with their attacker, hitting him with a whiskey bottle and cutting him with a bowie knife.

The girls were rescued later by sheriff’s deputies, ending a 12-hour ordeal that began with their predawn kidnapping Thursday from separate cars parked at a local overlook known as Quartz Hill Mountain.

The abductions set in motion a massive manhunt involving at least half a dozen law enforcement agencies and the first statewide use of the “Amber alert” system, which posts kidnapping information on electronic freeway signs as well as on radio and television.