Girl, 9, is abducted outside her Simi home
Simi Valley Police continued to search Friday for the suspect in a kidnapping and attempted sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl.
A middle-aged Latino man grabbed the girl by the hair, forced her into his vehicle and drove around the city for about an hour Thursday, trying unsuccessfully to molest her, according to police.
Frustrated, the man dropped off the girl about a block from her family’s apartment on Patricia Avenue.
The girl suffered minor scratches and bruises but was not seriously injured.
The girl was playing alone outside her home when the man approached her about 4 p.m., police said.
He is described as thin, approximately 45 to 50 years old and about 5 foot 7 with short curly hair and a mustache.
The vehicle was described as a dirty, dark-colored four-door pickup truck with a camper shell, police said.
The man drove the girl to various spots around the city and at one stop ingested “a white powdery” substance and unsuccessfully tried to get the girl to join him, according to Lt. Roy Jones.
The suspect partially disrobed and tried to sexually molest the girl, who fought him off for about an hour before he released her, Jones said.
Simi Valley Unified School District officials were notified of the kidnapping Thursday night and forwarded the information to its principals.
The girl lives near Berylwood Elementary School, which sent a letter home to parents Friday informing them about the abduction.
The Police Department asks anyone with information to contact its detective unit at (805) 583-6950 or, to remain anonymous, call Ventura County Crimestoppers at (805) 494-8255.
A similar but unrelated incident occurred Tuesday morning in Oxnard, when a 10-year-old girl was grabbed as she walked the few blocks from her home to a school bus stop.
The unidentified suspect covered the girl’s eyes with his right hand, grabbed her waist with his left hand and started to drag her toward the alley in the 900 block of North G Street.
The girl punched the man in the head and escaped.
After arriving at Thurgood Marshall School, about 10 minutes away, she told administrators about the incident and they contacted the police.
The girl, who was uninjured, described her attacker as a Caucasian or Latino male with a light complexion, 25 to 30 years old, about 5 foot 7 and 150 pounds.
He wore a baggy, gray hooded sweatshirt; baggy bluejeans, blue-and-white tennis shoes, and a black beanie with red-white-and-blue stripes.
The investigation of both cases is ongoing.
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