O.C. woman is missing after Internet date

Investigators are looking for a Rancho Santa Margarita honor student missing for two weeks after leaving on a date with a man she met through the Internet, a sheriff’s spokesman said Thursday.

Donna Haghighat Jou, who is majoring in physics at San Diego State University, was seen by her mother climbing onto the back of a motorcycle down the street from their apartment at 5:30 p.m. June 23, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

Jou, 19, said she was going on a date, possibly to a party in Los Angeles County, Amormino said. The motorcyclist was wearing a black helmet, a black sleeveless shirt and bluejeans.

Thursday night the man was named by authorities as a “person of interest” in the investigation. His full name remains unknown, but he was identified as Kyle and by his Internet name, “Skinny Puppy.” Amormino said he was identified as the man who picked up Jou by a family member who looked at a picture of him recovered from a computer.

He is described as white, short and in his 30s, with a tattoo on his left shoulder.

Amormino said a second man, a registered sex offender from Los Angeles named John Steven Burgess, also was named a person of interest. Authorities said he was renting a house where Jou was seen June 23 or 24.

It is unknown if this was the first meeting between Jou and the man who picked her up. Amormino said she did not take a change of clothes.

“She told her mother she’d be home later that night, but she didn’t return,” Amormino said. “Calls to her cellphone went unanswered. The mother received a text message the following day saying she would be home soon, but we don’t know who sent it.”

The investigation is at the beginning stage, but Amormino said detectives were concerned because Jou was known to call her mother frequently. He said it was unusual that the man did not pick up Jou at her house, choosing instead to park the motorcycle two houses down and wait for her to come out.

The message box on Jou’s cellphone is full, but no calls have been made since her disappearance.

Amormino said her credit cards had not been used.

Jou was taking summer classes at Santiago Canyon Community College in Orange and was planning to return to San Diego State in the fall.

hgreza@latimes.com