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CNN Live Today

Kidnapped California Girls Safe

Aired August 02, 2002 - 11:15   ET

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to focus on something we were following very closely yesterday in California, and that is authorities who say that two teenage girls who were kidnapped in southern California were rescued. It was just in the nick of time. They think the abductor was minutes away from killing the girls. But this morning, the man is dead, the girls are safe.
Our James Hattori is live. He is in Monterey Park, California, with details on this rescue.

James, good morning.

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Investigators describe the dead kidnapper, 37-year-old Roy Ratliff, as a desperate man, especially in those final moments as the standout unfolded yesterday afternoon. In fact, reportedly he at one point shouted out, No way, no way, and reached for a weapon shortly before sheriff's deputies opened fire and killed him.

Now, this morning -- or rather, one of the assistant sheriffs here we talked with just briefly this morning, and he said that he's convinced that Ratliff intended to kill the two girls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASST. SHERIFF LARRY WALDIE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: He was a third striker wanted for rape already. I don't think he had any intention of going back to jail. I think the sheriff of Kern County was absolutely accurate. I think he had intended -- he had nothing to lose -- to take the girls and do away with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HATTORI: Now, this morning the two girls are back with their families. One flew back last night. Another drove back with their family. They're considered to be relatively good condition, considering the ordeal they've gone through, including sexual assault.

Now, they were taken early Thursday from a spot known as a lovers lane in Lancaster, California. Their companions -- two young men -- were left tied up. It all ended about 12 hours later, after a car chase and a state-wide manhunt about 100 miles to the north in Kern County. The kidnapper, Mr. Ratliff, swerved down a hill. Deputies moved in. It's not clear if the suspect ever fired at the deputies.

He again is identified as Roy Ratliff, a convicted burglar, also a parole violator and wanted on a rape church in Kern County. Hew is described as a three striker, meaning he would face mandatory sentence if convicted a third time. And as we say, Daryn, police are convinced that he intended to do serious bodily harm to these girls, perhaps even kill them out in that area in Kern County, maybe even bury them there -- Daryn.

KAGAN: No doubt these girls had a harrowing 12 hours yesterday, but the good news is that they are alive and here to tell the story. And he is not, frankly. After what he put those girls through and perhaps some other people.

Have the sheriffs deputies figured out how he knew to go to this point in the first place, where he picked up the girls. It seems pretty remote. It seems like if you're a teenager in Lancaster, you know about this lovers lane, so to speak. But unless you're a local, I wonder how you even come upon this remote area.

HATTORI: He, in fact, lived -- I'm not sure for how long -- but he apparently lived not far from there, near Edward's Air Force Base. You're familiar with the southern California area. That's kind of vaguely the same general area, although there are some wide expanses out there. So he may have had some familiarity with that spot, although there's no official word as to whether or not he purposely went there or targeted that.

He was also familiar with this area in Kern County where he ended up, according to authorities. So he had some -- he had an idea of the lay of the land.

KAGAN: Got it. James Hattori in Monterey Park, California. Thank you for bringing us the wrap-up on that story.

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