Black men as child abductors? Uhhhh, that doesn't even sound right...

[AKA2D '91]

Good Morning America World News Tonight 20/20 Primetime Nightline UpClose WNN This Week

August 17, 2002


Uhhh, Someone needs to inform the po-po's that Black men do not hardly abduct children.




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Jessica Cortez, the 4-year-old who disappeared from a neighborhood park on Sunday, was found safe at a medical clinic after a woman brought her in.



Her abductor apparently tried to disguise Jessica Cortez by cutting her hair short, but staff at a medical clinic recognized the 4-year-old anyway. (ABCNEWS.com) Woman Charged
in Abduction
4-Year-Old Found at a Medical Clinic;
Man Sought for Questioning



L O S A N G E L E S, Aug. 14 — Police charged a woman with kidnapping today after a 4-year-old girl she brought to a clinic with a sore throat was recognized as Jessica Cortez, the child who disappeared from a city park on Sunday.


Jessica was dirty and barefoot, with her hair cut short, but she was unharmed when the woman, identified as Particia Cornejo, 34, brought her to the clinic on Tuesday for treatment of a sore throat, police said.
Though Cornejo gave the girl's name as Maria, members of the clinic staff recognized the girl from media coverage of the case. They asked her what her name was, and when she said "Jessica," they called police.

The clinic staff's quick thinking helped bring a joyful end to a case that had police baffled, trying different tacks to determine what had happened to the little girl.

Police had initially believed Jessica might have drowned at a lake in Echo Park, where she disappeared on Sunday, but a search of the lake turned up empty. Investigators then released a sketch of a man who some witnesses said they saw talking to the girl, and police called him a possible suspect in the case.

Police now say the man is not a suspect, though they would still like to talk to him, to possibly get a clearer picture of what happened on Sunday.

They say they do not yet know what the motive was, but have charged Cornejo with kidnapping.

"We have developed information overnight that leads us to believe she is a suspect," Los Angeles Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said today on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "We have in fact booked her on kidnapping charges."

He said the name of the man initially identified as a possible suspect could be released by the end of the day.

"We're not certain there is a connection," he said. "We do believe that man exists. He was seen by many people, but … a couple of our previously thought-to-be-credible witnesses have recanted their story. So that gentleman may not have been in close proximity to Jessica.

"We do want to talk to that man and learn his story, but he's not the primary suspect right now," Pomeroy added. "The woman that brought Jessica to the clinic is."

‘Still a Beautiful Young Lady’

Despite her sore throat and being a bit confused about what was going on, Jessica seemed to be in good health and she and her family were overjoyed at being reunited.

"The mother, as you might expect, was weeping hysterically, and little Jessica threw her arms around her mother and began to laugh hysterically. And then after a few minutes, she also began to weep," Pomeroy said.

"We think it will be a long time before they let go of one another," he said.

Rafael Cortez, Jessica's father, and Maria Hernandez, her mother, sell tacos from a small stand across the street from the park.

Jim Mangia, executive director of the St. John's Well Child Center, described the person who brought in Jessica as a well-dressed woman in sunglasses. She would not sign the clinic's forms and wrote that the child's name was Maria Ortiz, Mangia said.

The attempted deception did not fool the clinic's receptionist, though.

When the woman went to the bathroom, the receptionist and others on the clinic staff questioned the girl. She told them her name was Jessica and that the woman who had brought her in was not her mother, Mangia said.

A composite drawing released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows the man who police at first called a possible suspect in the disappearance of 4-year-old Jessica Cortez. (Los Angeles Police Department/AP Photo)


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Pomeroy said Jessica appeared to be in good spirits, although she was worried that she was no longer pretty because her long hair had been cut.

"She told our detectives that she wasn't pretty any longer," Pomeroy said on Good Morning America. "They assured her that she still a beautiful young lady in their eyes."

A Happy Ending

A priest who has been trying to comfort the girl's family throughout the ordeal said they didn't lose hope, despite the twists and turns in the case.

"This is a family that went from looking into the brink of hell to being in heaven in a matter of seconds," Father David Bowser said today on Good Morning America. "They sat here, starting Sunday night watching them drag the lake, the divers going down, thinking their daughter might be there and then hearing the news she might have been kidnapped, going through theanguish and hope she might be alive, not knowing which would be better or worse.

"They were literally in agony, and suddenly to be thrust — here's your daughter, and seeing her well and alive — I don't think you can imagine two people much happier," he said.

The kidnapping is the most recent in a series of high-profile abductions across the country, few of which have ended as happily.



ABCNEWS' Bill Redeker contributed to this report.