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Happy Ending For 9-Year-Old Girl

Aired June 09, 2003 - 05:38   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A happy ending. A 9-year-old girl kidnapped from her California home was found late last night. This video shows Jennette Tamayo leaving a police station in East Palo Alto, California early this morning. This happened at 1:30 Eastern time. A short time before that, she had walked into a convenience store after being released by her abductor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was walking in, she was crying, scared. And I asked her, "How can I help you?" She said, "Please don't call the cops. Please don't call the cops." I said, OK, I promise you I'm not going to call the cops. Let me help you." She said, "Let me use the phone." I said, "OK, here's the phone."

When she started dialing the phone, she was panicky and scared. She didn't know how to dial the numbers. And I told her, "Let me get the phone. Let me dial the number for you." And so I dialed the number after that. The number was in the San Jose area. I asked her, "How long have you been missing?" She said, "One day." I asked her again, "How long have you been missing?" She said, "Three days." And I asked her, "How old are you?" She said, "Nine." So right away I figured out she's the one missing from San Jose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Of course, that's the convenience store owner. We don't know exactly where Jeannette is right now. We're going to go live back to California in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.

Back in San Jose, by the way, neighbors of Jennette Tamayo are celebrating her safe return. Upon hearing the news she was found alive, neighbors hugged and cheered in the streets and the neighbor who caught the kidnapping on tape with her surveillance camera says it's been an emotional couple of days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN KAMFOLT, NEIGHBOR: Physically draining, mentally draining, stomach's in knots, just real nauseous all day long. And now my stomach's still in knots, but I'm elated that she's coming home. We're all waiting for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Well, but the big question remains, who is the kidnapper? He is still at large this morning. Police say this is the man who's still on the run. He's in his 30s or early 40s. He's around 5'5," weighs about 160 pounds. They believe he has dark hair. Now, this picture from a neighbor's surveillance video shows the suspect's getaway car, too. It's believed to be a late 1980s or early '90s four door Honda Accord or similar car.

If you want to get more information on the suspect and see some of the neighbor's surveillance video, you can do that by going onto our Web site. That's cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 9, 2003 - 05:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A happy ending. A 9-year-old girl kidnapped from her California home was found late last night. This video shows Jennette Tamayo leaving a police station in East Palo Alto, California early this morning. This happened at 1:30 Eastern time. A short time before that, she had walked into a convenience store after being released by her abductor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was walking in, she was crying, scared. And I asked her, "How can I help you?" She said, "Please don't call the cops. Please don't call the cops." I said, OK, I promise you I'm not going to call the cops. Let me help you." She said, "Let me use the phone." I said, "OK, here's the phone."

When she started dialing the phone, she was panicky and scared. She didn't know how to dial the numbers. And I told her, "Let me get the phone. Let me dial the number for you." And so I dialed the number after that. The number was in the San Jose area. I asked her, "How long have you been missing?" She said, "One day." I asked her again, "How long have you been missing?" She said, "Three days." And I asked her, "How old are you?" She said, "Nine." So right away I figured out she's the one missing from San Jose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Of course, that's the convenience store owner. We don't know exactly where Jeannette is right now. We're going to go live back to California in the next half hour of DAYBREAK.

Back in San Jose, by the way, neighbors of Jennette Tamayo are celebrating her safe return. Upon hearing the news she was found alive, neighbors hugged and cheered in the streets and the neighbor who caught the kidnapping on tape with her surveillance camera says it's been an emotional couple of days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN KAMFOLT, NEIGHBOR: Physically draining, mentally draining, stomach's in knots, just real nauseous all day long. And now my stomach's still in knots, but I'm elated that she's coming home. We're all waiting for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Well, but the big question remains, who is the kidnapper? He is still at large this morning. Police say this is the man who's still on the run. He's in his 30s or early 40s. He's around 5'5," weighs about 160 pounds. They believe he has dark hair. Now, this picture from a neighbor's surveillance video shows the suspect's getaway car, too. It's believed to be a late 1980s or early '90s four door Honda Accord or similar car.

If you want to get more information on the suspect and see some of the neighbor's surveillance video, you can do that by going onto our Web site. That's cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com