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Friday, Aug. 2, 2002

Jacqueline Marris, 17, and Tamara Brooks, 16, were said to be unharmed and in good condition after the nearly 12-hour ordeal that took them from a secluded hilltop near Lancaster to Kern County, about 100 miles to the north, where their kidnapper, identified as fugitive Roy Ratliff, was shot and killed by law enforcement.

"We took a phone call from the Kern County Sheriff's Department saying that they had stopped the Bronco, had the girls in custody and that the girls were safe," Los Angeles County Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie told a news conference in Lancaster. "The last word I got was that the subject was deceased. He had a gun, but I don't know if he fired it."

The parents of the two girls were being flown to Kern County aboard a sheriff's department plane to be reunited with their daughters.

"Your heart goes back into your chest when you find out your child is safe," said Jacqueline's mother, Nadine Dyer, who had flown back from Asia overnight.

The two girls were not acquainted with each other before Thursday, but they were thrown together by terrifying circumstances around 1:30 a.m. PDT while parked with their boyfriends on a dirt road outside town that is popular with young couples.

Carjacking

According to deputies, Ratliff either appeared at the scene or was already there in a Saturn sedan reported stolen July 18 in a carjacking in Las Vegas. It had been thought early in the investigation that the suspect was primarily interested in the Bronco because the Saturn had a flat tire and reeked of gasoline, suggesting Ratliff had planned to set the car on fire.

Ratliffe was from the Lancaster area. It has been surmised that this is how he knew of the isolated "lovers' lane."

He was wanted in Kern County on a $3 million warrant for rape, Waldie said. It was not known why he chose to return to Kern County after the kidnapping.

Ratliffe forced the two girls out of their vehicles and tied up their male companions with duct tape. He then left with the two girls in a 1980 white Ford Bronco belonging to one of the boys.

One of the young males, Joshua Brown, told Los Angeles television station KNBC early Thursday that the suspect threatened to kill him and appeared to be talking to himself.

"Mostly it was about whether or not he should kill me," Brown said as he stood with strands of silver duct tape still hanging from his wrists and legs.

Waldie said the boys got loose and called 911 around 2 a.m. PDT.

'Amber Alert'

The abduction triggered California's new "Amber Alert," designed to quickly publicize information about kidnappings so the public can be on the lookout for a fleeing suspect. Gov. Gray Davis called for the system's statewide implementation July 24 in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion in Orange County.

Shortly after daybreak, the Lancaster kidnapping was a dominant news story on television stations in California and the cable TV news networks. In addition, the Bronco's license number was displayed on message boards along state freeways during the morning rush hour.

"We had a trail of sightings going up north," Waldie said. "We had them spotted twice, and finally they were located by the Kern County sheriff."

Waldie said that an animal control officer in Kern County saw the Bronco and called the sheriff's office. When deputies and the California Highway Patrol tried to stop the vehicle, Ratliff exited the highway and barreled along a rough dirt road in a remote area near Lake Elsinore. The Bronco wound up in a shallow ditch under a tree, at which time Ratliff fled on foot, leaving the two teenage girls behind.

"They secured the kids and went after him," Waldie said.

It was not known whether Ratliffe fired at his pursuers. Waldie said the suspect apparently was shot by the law officers and did not take his own life.

"The only information I have is that the suspect is deceased," Waldie said as an enthusiastic smattering of applause came from the crowd of Lancaster residents who had gathered at the command post for the news conference on the happy ending of a potentially disastrous ordeal.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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