Arrest Made in Girl's Kidnap-Killing

July 19, 2002 -- A man previously accused of molesting two girls is going to be charged in connection with the abduction, sexual abuse and killing of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, police announced tonight.

"I am 100 percent that Mr. [Alejandro] Avila is the man who kidnapped andmurdered Samantha Runnion," Orange County Sheriff Michael Caronasaid during a news conference tonight. Earlier today, Carona announced Avila's arrest but avoided characterizing the possible case against him.

Carona would not say what the charges would be against Avila as those will be decided by the district attorney. "We have arrested him under the suspicion of the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Runnion," Carona said.

Samantha was dragged kicking and screaming from her frontyard into a man's green car in broad daylight Monday as her horrified playmate looked on, police said. Police say Samantha's abductor tried to lure her into his vehicle by trying to persuade her to help him look for his lost chihuahua.

Her body was found Tuesday along rural Highway 74 in neighboring Riverside County and identified Wednesday. An autopsy found that she had been sexually assaulted, suffered physical trauma, and she was asphyxiated sometime Tuesday.

Avila, 27, closely resembled the composite sketch handed out by police based of the 5-year-old witness Sarah Ahn's description. Carona described him as 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Investigators initially described Samantha's kidnapper as Hispanic, 25 to 40 years old, with slicked-back brown hair and a mustache, wearing a powder-blue button-down shirt when he grabbed Samantha.

Previous Molestation Charge

Avila's arrest came after a night during which police executed a number of search warrants at an apartment complex not far from where Runnion's body was discovered. He has reportedly denied any involvement in the crime, telling police, according to The Los Angeles Times before his arrest that he was at a mall when the girl was abducted Monday.

Avila reportedly said that detectives told him they had found fibers on the girl's body that they believe to be key evidence.

Avila was allegedly familiar with the apartment complex where Samantha lived. Lewis Davis, the foster brother of Avila's ex-girlfriend, told The Associated Press that Avila had visited Samantha's neighborhood in Stanton on several occasions between 1998 and 1999. He said Avila visited his girlfriend's daughter, who happened to live in the same complex where the Runnion family now lives.

Davis said his sister and Avila broke off their relationship in1999. In 2000, Avila was charged with molesting two girls under the age of 14 in 2000, one of whom was his ex-girlfriend's daughter, but was found not guilty, court records show. The Runnions moved to the complex last year, in part to provide a safer place for their daughter.

Mother Defends Her Son

Initial news of the arrest came as a surprise, and was held until after Carona and Riverside County Sheriff-elect Bob Doyle played the 911 tapes from the distraught man who found Samantha's body Tuesday afternoon. As he announced Avila's arrest, Carona was careful to ask that the public continue to call in with any tips or possible leads they might have and thanked the media for its coverage of the slaying, telling reporters he could not answer any questions and that he and the investigators had a lot of work to do over the next several hours.

Avila was arrested following a night where investigators from Orange County and Riverside County served search warrants in two apartment buildings in Lake Elsinore and another was served at a business in Temecula.

Carona said evidence came from the two crime scenes — where Samantha was kidnapped and where the girl's body was found — and from the execution of the search warrants. Police also impounded a number of cars, though at least one is a white car, not a green one like the one witnesses to the little girl's abduction described, Carona said.

Emeline Ricalde, the manager of the low-income housing complexwhere the Avila lived with his mother, called police and told them she saw him inspecting a light green car on Tuesday. Adelina Avila, the arrested man's mother, said her Lake Elsinore apartment was searched by authorities late Thursday. She said that her son was detained by police early Thursday for questioning and insisted he was not involved in the slaying.

"I don't think my son did anything, but I notice he is cooperating," she said. "I don't have anything against that. He hasn't been through this before so he doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't have no record."

Carona said today that investigators received more than 2,000 leads from the hotline they set up, and investigators were running massive computer searches on sex offenders in the area, the state and around the nation. He said there were more than 10 and fewer than 50 individuals police were particularly interested in.

Carona thanked the media and the public for sending law enforcement thousands of tips that led to Avila's arrest.

"Without you the public and you the media, we would not have been able to bring this suspect to justice," he said.

ABCNEWS' David Wright, Brian Rooney and Steffan Tubbs in Los Angeles and ABC affiliate KABC contributed to this report.