No Force in Abduction, Police Say

Jessica Cortez probably was not taken by force and was not harmed by the mother of four who allegedly kept her for two days, interim LAPD Chief Martin Pomeroy said Wednesday.

And investigators believe that 4-year-old Jessica was continuously in the custody of Patricia Cornejo for the 45 hours she was missing this week, triggering a nationally chronicled search.

That search ended happily Tuesday afternoon when Jessica was found at a health clinic near USC.

Cornejo, who police say acted alone, brought her there.

As Jessica’s parents continued to celebrate her safe return, and clinic workers who rescued her were honored, police puzzled over what motivated the abduction.

“I don’t know how you can understand why [Cornejo] might have done this. We’re struggling to do so, and as yet she has not informed us,” Pomeroy said.

The 34-year-old South-Central woman was described by acquaintances as troubled and reclusive.

Investigators think Cornejo led Jessica away from Echo Park on Sunday by means perhaps no more complicated “than holding her hand and walking out of the park,” Pomeroy said.

Police said that Cornejo did not know Jessica or her family before the alleged kidnapping, and that Cornejo was cooperative with investigators, telling them that she saw Jessica in the park and took her home.

Beyond that, her motives remain hazy, Pomeroy said.

Jessica’s mother and father, Maria Hernandez and Rafael Cortez, appeared in Echo Park on Wednesday to thank police and area residents for their help.

Hernandez said she never lost hope that Jessica would be found.

“We waited two days and two nights for this. Now she’s back,” Maria Hernandez said, at times cradling Jessica.

Jessica was dressed in a frock and blue sandals, and still wearing her hospital bracelet.

She appeared unfazed and spent part of the news conference occupied with crayons and paper.

Hernandez said Jessica seemed mostly upset that her hair had been cut, and was otherwise healthy.

She may have spent some of the time she was away in Cornejo’s yellow, one-bedroom bungalow, acquaintances said.

The bungalow is behind a chain-link fence a few feet from roaring traffic just east of the Harbor Freeway and south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Cornejo lived there with two daughters, ages 4 and 10, police said.

Landlord Abel Garcia said he was moved by pity to rent the $600-per-month unit to Cornejo earlier this year without the usual credit or background checks. “She kind of touched my heart,” he said.

Cornejo told him she had a troubled past and lived on welfare, and complained of unhappiness.

She sometimes behaved erratically, and seldom left her home, often sleeping until the afternoon, Garcia said.

The bungalow was filthy, he said, but Cornejo’s girls were polite and seemed well-tended.

At times, Cornejo complained to Garcia that the other tenants were laughing at her.

And occasionally, when he came to collect her rent, she wouldn’t speak or look at him, opening the door just wide enough to slip a money order through, he said.

Eligia Garcia, 10, his daughter, is one of several children at the complex who say they saw Cornejo on Tuesday afternoon with a third child--a girl no one had seen before.

Eligia said she saw Cornejo walk down the concrete paths that separate the bungalows holding the new girl’s hand.

The girl did not seemed distressed or frightened, she added. “She seemed OK with it,” she said.

As of Wednesday morning, investigators had not interviewed Jessica.

“We don’t have a complete story, but we didn’t push. We showed some compassion,” Pomeroy said. “We will interview her when the time is right.”

Cornejo’s daughters were taken into protective custody, police said.

She has two sons, ages 14 and 8, who live with their father.

News of Jessica’s rescue prompted strangers to shower gifts of candy and flowers on the workers at St. John’s Well Child Center, where Jessica was found.

Denise Leon, a clinic receptionist with two days on the job, told reporters Wednesday that she had felt there was something suspicious about Cornejo as soon as she walked into the clinic.

Cornejo was wearing sunglasses, a red blazer, jeans and high heels, Leon said.

She told clerks that the girl she had brought with her had a sore throat.

Leon thought from the first that the girl looked like Jessica. But co-workers were skeptical, she said.

Yet they agreed the pair were out of the ordinary. Cornejo wouldn’t sign a consent form.

And the girl seemed to speak only Spanish, while Cornejo appeared to be a native English speaker, and took offense when clinic workers offered to interpret.

Cornejo was being held Wednesday in a South-Central booking facility on suspicion of kidnapping.

Police are expected to ask the district attorney to file charges today.

The kidnapping charge carries a $500,000 bail requirement.