For Carona, as well as millions of other anxious Americans who have been clutching their children a little tighter in recent weeks, there was relief but no joy in how the case unfolded. The swift arrest of a suspect, Alejandro Avila, 27, an assembly worker for a medical-products company, calmed much of the near hysteria that had gripped Samantha's hometown of Stanton, Calif. But it was impossible to ignore the horror that lingered over the strangulation and sexual assault of a 3'6", 40-lb. innocent. "She was the sweetest and prettiest little girl," says Jerry Bayless, the crossing guard at Lawrence Elementary School, where Samantha had finished first grade five weeks ago. "She'd come every day, holding hands with her stepsister and never trying to cross the street until the light was green. She always had a 'Hello' for me."
The tale of Avila's arrest is one of aggressive and determined police work but also of pure luck. Because Samantha's body, arranged by the killer in a grotesque pose, was found by a pair of hikers on a remote mountain trail 40 miles from Stanton only 20 hours after her abduction, it was relatively undisturbed. Police sources refused to discuss exactly what was recovered, but according to at least one report there were DNA samples discovered under Samantha's fingernails, which could have come from the struggle she put up when her abductor snatched her outside her home as she played a board game with her friend Sarah Ahn, 6. Fresh tire tracks near the body may have provided another clue. No less crucial, cops also had in hand the remarkably detailed description that Sarah had given of the kidnapper, as well as of the green car she said he was driving.
The problem was there was no suspect against whom any of the information could be matched. So Carona and his team began the enormous task of plowing through records of known sex offenders in California-there are roughly 95,000 on file-looking for any who matched the description and checking on alibis. Even in those early stages, Sheriff Carona had more than 400 law enforcement officers working on the case around the clock, including FBI investigators and profilers. That's when lightning struck, in the form of several tips received on the afternoon of July 17, two days after the abduction. They pointed to the same man: Alejandro Avila, who lived part-time with his mother, Adelina, in an apartment in Lake Elsinore, just 10 miles from where Samantha's body was found. "There's always a certain amount of luck [in solving a case]," says Carona. "But the breaks occurred because of all the work we did in the field."
Police have refused to disclose the identities of the tipsters. But according to Lewis Davis, 39, his foster sister Elizabeth Ann Veglahn was one of those who alerted police. It turned out that until six months ago Veglahn had lived in the same apartment complex as Samantha Runnion and her mother, Erin, 27, a corporate analyst. Further, she had dated Avila several years ago. But in January 2000, based on accusations from Veglahn, Avila was charged with molesting both her then 9-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old relative. In a police interview at the time Avila admitted kissing the girls and "tickling" them in a nonsexual way but denied any wrongdoing. A jury acquitted Avila of all charges, largely because the main evidence against him was the girls' allegations. Even so, maintains Davis, his sister was concerned that Avila might be violent: She had gotten a restraining order against him.
Another of the tips apparently came from a current neighbor of Avila's. The neighbor reportedly told police of seeing Avila thoroughly cleaning his car, a green Thunderbird that resembled the description police had released, the day after the body was found. What further sold police on Avila was the striking similarity between him and the composite drawing made from Sarah Ann's recollection. By the evening of July 17 cops had Avila under surveillance. The next morning police took him in for questioning. Bringing him to a nearby hotel, they took a sample of his blood and quizzed him for 12 hours.
That evening another team of investigators executed a search warrant on his apartment and workplace. All along, Avila insisted on his innocence, saying that he had been at a mall when Samantha was taken. (Avila has never been convicted of a crime, though his father, Rafael, served eight years for the 1992 murder of a neighbor.) But in a brief interview with the Los Angeles Times in the early morning hours of July 19 Avila acknowledged that investigators had told him they had found fibers on Samantha that were linked to him. Later that morning, even though DNA tests were still pending, police formally arrested Avila. Five hours later lab results came back showing a match between his DNA and samples found on Samantha. With that, even Avila's mother, Adelina, who had initially defended her son, seemed to hedge her bets. "I hope that God forgives him if he is found guilty," she said on NBC's Today show.
Orange County prosecutor Tony Rackauckas has yet to announce whether he will seek the death penalty against Avila. Meanwhile Erin Runnion, mourning her little girl, emerged briefly from seclusion to thank those who had gathered at a makeshift shrine at the apartment complex—and to remind everyone that some good could come from her tragedy. "Watch out for your babies," she said. "Watch out for each other's babies. Take care of one another." For Sheriff Carona, along with Samantha's family, the healing may take some time. The officer says he still wakes up several times a night "in a cold sweat with nightmares," and he has brought in teams of psychologists to counsel everyone in his department who worked on the case, himself included. "It keeps going through my head," he says. "It's a bittersweet victory—at the end I'm left with an overwhelming sense of sadness."
Bill Hewitt
Kurt Pitzer in Stanton and Ajay Singh in Lake Elsinore
- Contributors:
- Kurt Pitzer,
- Ajay Singh.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
