Police Probe Connection Between Northridge Abduction and 2008 Kidnappings

Among the many leads being investigated by Los Angeles Police Department detectives in conjunction with the abduction of a 10-year-old Northridge girl is a possible connection to the kidnapping of three children in 2008."Public records show that one of the children kidnapped in 2008 was a relative of the Northridge girl," reports the L.A. Times.

The 2008 kidnappings involved brothers who kidnapped their own children and fled with them to foreign countries. The children and their parental abductors, identified by the FBI as John and George Silah, were tracked down in November 2010 in the Netherlands. CNN reported in 2010:

The boys were reunited with their mothers, and the Silah brothers "pleaded guilty to charges of international parent kidnapping and were each sentenced to 27 months in prison last year. They were released on Oct. 23," notes the Times. The men have been under court supervision since their release.

It is unclear if this kidnapping has any connection beyond the familial tie to Wednesday's abduction of the 10-year-old girl who vanished from her own bedroom.

The girl's mother said she had checked on her daughter at about 1 a.m. and she was asleep in her bedroom. She said she heard a commotion at about 3:40 a.m. and went to check out her daughter's bedroom, only the girl was gone. A gate at the yard of the property was also left open.

At around 3 p.m. someone spotted the red-headed 10-year-old outside a Starbucks strip mall at Canoga Avenue and Oxnard Street, and notified authorities. The child, barefoot, appeared to be okay except for a few facial bruisings and lacerations, but was taken to an area hospital for evaluation.

The girl told police she was held in an abandoned home near her house and later a storage facility. She was then left off at a Kaiser hospital, reports City News Service.
The child was only able to provide scant details about her alleged abductors. She said she did not know either of them, but one was an 18-year-old man, she said.

Sources told the L.A. Times the girl was sexually assaulted.

Though the girl's identity was widely known when she was missing, as a minor victim, her identity is no longer being provided in media reports.

Investigators say they are turning over every stone to determine who kidnapped the girl.

Detectives from the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division have established a tipline for people to provide information about the case, (213) 486-6890.