Kidnap Suspect Probed in Other Case

Aug. 15, 2000 -- The man arrested in the kidnapping of an 8-year-old girl in Vallejo, Calif., was charged today with multiple counts of kidnapping and sexual assault.

Curtis Dean Anderson, 39, was arrested Saturday hours after an 8-year-old girl unlocked herself from a leg shackle in Anderson’s car and ran for safety to a passing truck driver, police said. The girl, who was abducted as she walked home from school on Thursday, is in good condition and home with her parents.

With his hands and feet shackled, Anderson appeared in a wheelchair today as prosecutors filed 11 charges against him in the alleged kidnapping, most of which were molestation crimes and forced oral copulation. His court-appointed lawyer, Mark Roelke, persuaded the judge to delay Anderson’s formal arraignment until Friday so that he could review the case.

Because of the multitude of charges and his lengthy criminal record, prosecutors say Anderson could face life in prison if convicted.The girl’s name, which was originally reported after her escape, is now being withheld by many news agencies since the charges against her suspected attacker include sex crimes.

Link to Another DisappearanceThe charges against Anderson come as police began looking into allegations that he may be linked to the disappearance of a 7-year-old girl who has been missing since December. Anderson reportedly worked at the same taxi cab company that employed the mother of the young girl.

Xiana Fairchild has not been seen since she disappeared Dec. 9. Anderson quit his job at City Cab in Vallejo one day before her disappearance, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Xiana’s mother, Antoinette Robinson, and her boyfriend, Robert Turnbough, both worked at the same cab company, but not while Anderson was employed there.

Vallejo Police Lt. JoAnn West acknowledged similarities between the two cases.

“Right now we are sifting through items in his car and former residences to find any link between this abduction and any previous crimes,” she said.

Relatives said they are suspicious of the coincidence.

“There are too many coincidences for there not to have been alink,” said Stephanie Kahalekulu, Xiana’s great-aunt, who has leda search effort to recover the girl. “To have Anderson placed in Vallejo all the way up to the day she went missing, and the fact that Xiana’s path to the bus stop onher way to school was going past the cab drivers … there isdefinitely a link.”

Extensive RecordThe Solano County authorities say Anderson has a record of arrests for drugs, vandalism, theft and threatening women, spanning 21 years. He was sent to prison for exposing himself to a child three years ago, but he was not a registered sex offender. That’s because the exposure was not a conviction but was used to revoke his parole.

Police believe the 8-year-old who escaped Saturday spent her entire time in captivity in a beat-up car with cardboard covering the windows and trash filling the back seat.

One of Anderson’s former employers was surprised by the allegations against him.

“I didn’t suspect he would do something like that, but he’s quite a character; he talks a lot, he always complains,” said Robert Halbauer, Anderson’s former supervisor at America Net-Working Inc., where Anderson worked earlier this year returning lost baggage to airline travelers.

Truck Driver Assisted in Rescue

Anderson, who was released from San Quentin state prison last year, was arrested in north San Jose with the help of a license plate number provided by the truck driver who picked up the 8-year-old.

The driver, Carl Tofua, told ABCNEWS Radio that the girl climbed into his truck as she fled from the suspect.

“She showed me the mark on her legs, you know, that the guy had,” Tofua said. “And I go, ‘How did you get out?’ And she said she found the key and unlocked herself.

“She was kind of relieved that the guy drove away and she knew she was gonna be saved,” he said.

Police are also investigating suspicions that Anderson volunteered in searches for Xiana. The volunteers who have helped in the Xiana case have been required to register, and police are sifting through sign-in log sheets and fingerprint sheets.

ABCNEWS Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.