Expendable For A Cause.

On this blog, we have already established that there is no evidence that Richard Ramirez was abducting children, as mentioned in this general outline of the whole case. Primarily, because it is impossible for anyone to shapeshift in the way Ramirez supposedly did. When DNA supposedly tied Ramirez to the brutal stabbing of nine-year-old Mei “Linda” Leung, it appeared to vindicate the allegation that Ramirez harmed children, although that case is not as clear cut as the public have been led to believe either. We covered the Leung case here. Below: the February-March 1985 child abductor/s from the Los Angeles Times and the Netflix documentary (centre).

While the child cases never went to trial “because the prosecution wanted to protect the children”, they (and adult victims) were being coached to pick Suspect Number 2 at the line-up, also covered in ‘Shapeshifter’ and this post on Anastasia Hronas in which a detective admits he told her what she saw. If those child abduction cases had gone to trial, it could have damaged the credibility of the rest of the claims, because it would soon be discovered that the original suspect – or one of them – was a blonde man.

We say one of them because there were many of these crimes happening in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and Orange County. This was not some new phenomenon that occurred at the same time the “Night Stalker” was supposedly at large and stopped abruptly in September 1985. It continued in the same manner after Ramirez was captured. Some of the perpetrators might even be the same kidnapper as in 1985. The following is by no means an exhaustive list – many more can be found in the news archives. While child abduction numbers where greatly exaggerated as part of a 1980s moral panic, there were enough to make parents worry. Sometimes, these kidnappers killed.

Pasadena, L.A. County: In December 1986, Phoebe Ho of South Pasadena was abducted on her way to school and her body was found dumped in Riverside County. Warren James Bland, charged with her murder, also had a penchant for stealing Toyota Corollas, a car model constantly linked to Richard Ramirez.

Placentia, Orange County: Another crime thought to have been committed by Bland was that of Wendy Osborn, aged 14, who was abucted in the same way, from Placentia in 1986. Her body was found dumped in Chino Hills, San Bernardino County. However, in 1995, DNA proved the killer was Raymond Barthlett. Barthlett was already in prison for a similar crime in 1988, in which the girl survived. The survivor, Kelly St John, went on to create a documentary about Osborn’s murder.

Tustin, Orange County: in June 1987, a father beat an intruder unconscious after he tried to drag his daughter, nine, out of their house at 1:45am. This abductor was Paul Edward Kumbartzky. He was 5’8”, slim to medium build with brown hair and blue eyes. The police were also looking for another kidnapper in Tustin at the same time, where Patricia Lopez, nine, was abducted and killed by a stocky Latino suspect with a moustache. In 2007, DNA discovered the real killer was her brother, who was 21/22 in 1987. He was charged with her murder but died before the trial.

Duarte, Los Angeles County: on 13^th November 1989, a man attempted to kidnap two girls aged seven and eight outside Royal Oaks Elementary School. The two girls fled and told police the man was six feet tall, white, with black curly hair. This crime is very similar to the ones connected with Richard Ramirez, that occurred outside schools situated on Donna Way, Montebello (March 1985). However, back then, a child abductee (and an adult witness to another failed kidnapping) both mentioned a blonde man of medium height and build. Ironically this Duarte kidnapper’s appearance is closer to Ramirez’s than the suspect in the crimes he was accused of.

The following day, 14^th November 1989, a nine-year-old was cycling home from Andres Duarte Elementary School when a man knocked her off the bike with his car and ordered her inside. The girl climbed back onto her bike and cycled away. However, this sounds like a different man from before. He was white, in his 20s with brown hair, brown eyes, a moustache and heavy set. He had a cut with stitches on his left cheek. He drove a red four-door car. This is his composite sketch.

Another article on the Duarte abductions suggested that this was a rare problem – a school district superintendent said this was an unusual crime; that he had never dealt with anything like it. While it was not his area, surely he remembered the kidnappings attributed to the Night Stalker just four years earlier? Duarte is close to Arcadia, where Anastasia Hronas was from.

La Verne, L.A. County: The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not think the above Duarte cases were related (rightly), nor did they believe any of the perpetrators committed yet another abduction on 12^th November 1989. In this La Verne case, a six-year-old girl was abducted, sexually abused and released by her captor in a local park. It is curious that in 1985, detectives were obsessed with linking Ramirez to six abductions where the multiple suspects looked nothing like him, yet four years later, the LASD insist that three similar cases over a three-day period were definitely not the same man. Again, a lieutenant from the LASD stated that, “None of us can remember this ever happening in the history of the city.” He probably specifically meant La Verne (in L.A. County, the districts are separate ‘cities’), but surely he remembered the abductions of 1985, that took place in Montebello, Eagle Rock, Monterey Park, Highland Park, Rosemead and Arcadia?

Interestingly, this suspect was white, about 30-years-old, medium build, medium height, with light brown or blonde hair. Although this man had a moustache, he is very close in appearance to the man sought for the March 1985 abductions Ramirez was accused of. He could also be the man with the cut on his face from the 14^th November Duarte incident (although he was “heavy-set”).

South Bay, L.A. County: in September 1989, there were seven attempts to kidnap nine children in Redondo Beach, Hawthorne and Manhattan Beach. The suspect was either white or Latino and in his 30s. His complexion was tanned and he sported a dark moustache and hair. He sometimes wore sunglasses. The children said he either drove a blue pickup truck or a Pontiac or a station wagon. Had this been four years earlier, Ramirez might have been accused, for he once owned a Pontiac and is portrayed as committing crimes in station wagons.

South Central Los Angeles: In April 1991, a man was committing identical crimes in South Central Los Angeles, where five girls aged between nine and 14 were snatched as they walked to school, molested and abandoned. This was a black suspect (Kevin Shovor Samuel), so obviously was not the same men from Los Angeles County, but it demonstrates that these are not rare or unusual crimes. It happens in inner city areas just as much as it does in suburbia.

Costa Mesa, Orange County: in April 1991, an eight-year-old girl was walking to school when a man tried to drag her into his car. The man released his grip when some passers-by witnessed and screamed. Disturbingly, there were other children inside his car. He was about 40, 5’10” with short brown hair and a moustache. He had a red and green rose tattoo on his hand.

Seal Beach/Huntington Beach, Orange County: August 1991. Glen Scott Simons, 25, was arrested of trying to drag a 12-year-old girl into his car. Ramirez was also accused of trying to snatch two 12-year-olds, particularly one in Highland Park, allegedly just before the traffic offence. Similar to the Highland Park case, thankfully, this girl broke free. A month earlier, there had been a similar incident in which a man tried to force a 14-year-old into his van and pointed a gun at her.

San Gabriel Valley: in 1992, back in the general area of the 1985 Night Stalker crimes, another child abductor was on the loose and driving a Toyota pickup truck. A four-year-old girl was snatched from a street in San Gabriel on 27^th May. A few days later, a five-year-old was taken in Monrovia and escaped from the truck when the driver stopped at a red light. This suspect was thought to be involved in a third incident with a San Pedro child (not in the Valley), also aged five. The suspect was 25-30 years old, medium build and about 5’8”. He had slicked back hair, possibly in a ponytail. Just days later, detectives arrested Steven Scott Rivers, aged 30, based on a composite sketch shown on the news (sadly not included in newspaper articles).

With these cases, Detective Darren Perrine said he looked at San Gabriel, Rosemead and Pasadena sex offender lists and created a shortlist of which Rivers was the most likely, based on a drawing. In Pasadena alone, there were 1,062 sex offenders. So why is it that this register was not checked when the 1985 abductions were happening? Why was it immediately thought to be the ‘serial killer’ that Detective Carrillo was hoping to catch? Was it just the presence of an Avia print at one dumping scene that took police way off track? In any case, those children have never had justice, because they have gone down in history as Richard Ramirez crimes, with no hope of reinvestigation.

-VenningB-