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CNN Live Saturday
Samantha Runnion's Hometown in Mourning
Aired July 20, 2002 - 17:02 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In California linking a suspect to the disturbing murder of a 5-year-old girl. Sources tell CNN DNA evidence found on little Samantha Runnion's body matches that of Alejandro Avila. The 27-year-old man was arrested Friday but has not been formally charged in the kidnapping and murder case.
CNN's David Mattingly is in Stanton, California, and David, they say they have evidence, but are they revealing much about the evidence that they have?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's about all we know right now. That was the new information coming in today. Actually coming in to us from CNN's Charles Feldman here in Los Angeles. He learned and passed on to us here in Stanton that DNA evidence has in fact been used to link the suspect, Alejandro Avila, to the 5-year-old murder victim, Samantha Runnion.
This confirms what people here have suspected all along. How else do you explain the confidence that authorities have had in this intense four day manhunt that was carried out in front of us this last four days? They say they had an abundance of evidence collected both at the site where Samantha was abducted and at the site where her body was recovered on Tuesday.
Now, that also explains possibly that bold statement we heard yesterday from the Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, who said he was 100 percent certain that they had their man. How else can someone in law enforcement these days be 100 percent certain without that DNA evidence? It's now confirmed that they do have that.
Now Alejandro Avila is behind bars tonight, awaiting charges. He's had trouble with the law in the past. He was accused of molesting two girls, one the daughter and one the niece of a former girlfriend. He was acquitted by a jury of those charges in a trial last year.
We've also learned today that the arraignment has been set. That has been set for 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Now, what we also are seeing today is the healing process continuing here in Stanton. At the neighborhood where Samantha once lived, people continue to come by to offer their respects and to share in the grief of Samantha's family. A short time ago members of the L.A. Police Emerald Society, a bagpipe band, performed "Amazing Grace" in the courtyard where Samantha used to play.
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The emotional scars of this incident running deep for this Stanton community. People here saying it's going to take a long time for these wounds to heal. They're still watching their children very closely and making sure this does not happen again. Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you very much, David. Appreciate it.
Well, residents in Stanton, California, and around the nation were stunned by the case. In less than a week's time the story of a missing little girl became a homicide followed by a much publicized arrest. CNN's Anne McDermott looks at how the facts unfolded.
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ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Monday 5-year- old Samantha Runnion is playing just outside her apartment when a stranger drives up. This child is the only one who saw what happened next.
SARAH AHN, SAMANTHA'S PLAYMATE: He threw her in the car really quick. Then he left really quick.
MCDERMOTT: And Samantha screamed and screamed.
ERIN RUNNION, SAMANTHA'S MOTHER: Baby, I love you. You are such a good girl. You are so clever. Please ask your captor to let you go.
MCDERMOTT: The sheer brazenness of the daylight abduction hit everyone hard, including the cops.
SHERIFF MICHAEL CARONA, ORANGE CO. CALIFORNIA: Don't sleep, don't eat, because we're coming after you.
MCDERMOTT: Less than 24 hours after the abduction, the kidnapper turned killer, as authorities learned from this frantic call to 911.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it an adult body?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's a baby. I think it might even be the little girl from the news! It's a little girl! I swear...
MCDERMOTT: Samantha had been sexually assaulted, her naked body left in an undescribed pose which investigators said was the killer's calling card, and they added they expected the killings would continue. But even as tributes to Samantha poured in, so did clues and calls to the cops. This bartender saw a man act oddly while watching coverage of the case, then leave abruptly, so he saved the beer bottle the man had been drinking from.
TOM, BARTENDER: Everything on television any more says DNA, and I figured there was saliva on there, fingerprints or something they can work with.
MCDERMOTT: By Thursday night officials began searching an apartment in Lake Elsinore not far from where Samantha's body was found, and they questioned 27-year-old Alejandro Avila. Avila's mother said he's innocent.
ADELINA AVILA, SUSPECT'S MOTHER: He's not that type of guy that would do that.
MCDERMOTT: But Friday, Avila was arrested. The sheriff said they got the right guy, they got Samantha's killer.
CARONA: Samantha became our little girl.
MCDERMOTT: And then he addressed Avila.
CARONA: When I told you that we would hunt you down wherever you were, arrest you, and bring you to justice, if you thought for one minute that I was joking, that we were joking, tonight you know we were deadly serious.
MCDERMOTT: Anne McDermott, CNN, Stanton, California.
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