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In Southern California, Police Arrive in Nick of Time to Rescue Two Kidnapped Girls

Aired August 02, 2002 - 10:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR; In Southern California, police arriving in just the nick of time to rescue two kidnapped teenaged girls. The sheriff's department said the girl's abductor had found a remote place to kill the girls and dump their bodies just as police arrived. Roy Ratliff was wanted on rape charges in Kern county. That's in central California. He was shot and killed by deputies as the girls were rescued from the stolen vehicle. Ratliff allegedly abducted the girls at gunpoint from a remote teen hangout in Lancaster. Police say the girls were sexually assaulted during the abduction.

We do want to share with out viewers, we have the girls pictures, we had the girls pictures and lots of information, including their name and their ages, up on our air yesterday. That's when the search part of the search part of the story was going on. Now that we have the information that they have been sexually assaulted, and also the fact that they're minors, we made the decision that in respect to them and their families, we're not showing their faces, and respecting their privacy.

Now Clint was talking about something that went right. They used this things called the public alert system. It's the Amber System. We were talking to the sheriff's deputy, and he said -- governor just installed this thing on Friday, Friday, Clint. That's just amazing. First of all, what is it? What is Amber Alert, and how it is meant to work?

CLINT VAN ZANDT, FMR. FBI PROFILER: It's a great system. What it means we know statistically is if someone kidnaps a child, if we don't get them back, you know, we say 24-48 hours, the reality is, if we don't get that child back in less than day, we will lose the child. So we know from law enforcement standpoint, we have to move quick, we have to move fast, we have to throw every resource we have.

But you know they're aren't enough police, deputies, troopers and FBI agents on the street. We need the public. We need CNN. We need people to put the word out so that everybody in this country, or at least in that general location, knows there's a child in danger. You know, if the child can't cry for help, the rest of us have to cry for help, and we have to be looking for that child. The state of California come up with this great system, where they have -- they have the ability to put an alert out. It's almost like , you call me, and then I'll call a dozen other stations, and we'll let everyone know, radio, newspaper, television. Of course, in California, they also have the signs that give you highway conditions. They can immediately put the information up on that sign, and amber alert, a description of the vehicle, a license plate, and here's the 800 number for the California highway patrol that sitting there ready to take the calls. So I mean, most of us have cell phones in our cars today. But for those who don't, for those, you know, you could stop at a pay phone or something.

In this particular situation, the sheriff's office had a number of calls based upon the amber alert. Of course the Amber Alert goes back to a little girl by the name of Amber, who was kidnapped and assaulted and murdered in Texas, and her parents came forward and said, there's got to be a better way to do this, and there is. It's by working with the media, working with the public, and having law enforcement take everything they have and throw it at this situation immediately.

Don't wait, do it now.

KAGAN: And what I found so amazing about this system and the pictures that we saw from yesterday were those highway signs, the freeway signs, because as you were mentioning, suddenly you have millions of other sets of eyes working for you and keeping their eyes open, and doing much more than any group of law enforcement officers can do.

VAN ZANDT: Isn't that great.

KAGAN: And especially in this summer, where we've heard so much happening to little girls and young women, whether it's in Baton Rouge or Samantha Runnion or Elizabeth Smart. There is a lot of angry and frustrated people out there, and they see that, and they want to do something and they want to help.

VAN ZANDT: You see, you touch a child, that's everybody's child. We're all parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents. And you touch a defenseless child, you touch -- sexually assault a man or a women is one thing. You touch a child, a teenager, you've touched all of us. And we all want to do something. We all feel so frustrated, and here's something you can do, be the extra eyes and ears, help the police, find the victims before we lose them. I mean, after this summer, we needed to get some positive points up on the scoreboard, and we got them, now. Now these girls were told -- sexually assaulted, and were so sorry for that. They're alive. They're alive, and that's what counts.

This guy was one more land shark, one more monster, one more predator that was out there, another poster boy who screams for the one violation, one strike rule and you go to jail. You know, anyone who assaults sexually belongs in jail, doesn't belong on the street. I know the liberals are going to scream at me and yell at me. So be it. Get the people off the streets, and protect our children, protect our men and women. Don't let someone go out and be a predator and hurt them.

KAGAN: On that note, we can say, at least this guy, he's done, he's done, and won't be hurting anybody anymore.

Clint Van Zandt, thanks for your expertise and talking our way through the story.

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