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Masked Kidnapper Targeting Young Girls in Whittier, Say Police
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Police in Whittier are on the hunt for a male suspect who appears to be targeting young girls for kidnapping. With the most recent abduction attempt taking place Thursday afternoon, police are piecing together what appears to be a series of incidents perpetrated by a suspect who wears a mask and grabs girls and puts them in his vehicle, according to City News Service.
On Thursday at around 2:35 p.m. an 11-year-old girl was grabbed from in front of Founders Park. She was put in the backseat of the suspect's car where she joined a girl of about seven who was crying. The older girl freed herself and the younger girl, and both escaped on foot, headed in separate directions.
The younger girl has not been accounted for either in reports of abductions or in missing a person report.
According to Whittier Police Officer Brad White, Thursday's attempted kidnap may be related to two similar kidnap attempts in the area.
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Both prior attempts took place on February 5. First, at 11:25 a.m. a 17-year-old girl walking near Broadway Park was approached by a suspect in his vehicle who pulled alongside her with the car door open and tried to lure her in for a ride. The teen ran away and contacted authorities.
At about 4:40 p.m. the same day, police received a witness report indicating a male suspect was trying to convince two teen girls to get into his car across the street from Whittier's Central Park. The girls did not report the confrontation to police, and the suspect fled the scene alone.
Connecting the kidnap attempts and encounters is the vehicle, a red convertible with a tan roof. The suspect is described as Hispanic, 25 to 35 years old, around 6 feet tall and of medium to heavy build. The 11-year-old girl indicated the suspect had short black hair and a tattoo of three dots on his left hand.
Anyone with information about the case was asked to call Whittier police detective Ken Woods at (562) 567- 9286 or the watch commander at (562) 567-9241.
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