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American Morning

Interview with Michael Carona

Aired July 19, 2002 - 07:15   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It is a race against time, and police say they might be gaining on the violent sexual predator, who ended Samantha Runnion's life at a very young age, the age of five. For a look at the investigation, where it stands right now, we get the very latest.

Orange County Police Sheriff Michael Carona back with us again this morning -- sir, good morning to you. I understand some search warrants have been surged -- served, rather, in an apartment complex, which is near the location where Samantha's body was found. What more can you add to that, Sheriff?

SHERIFF MICHAEL CARONA, ORANGE COUNTY POLICE: Well, I can tell you that because the media has been very good about getting the information out to the public, we had a number of leads that we were working. Some of those leads took us into the Riverside County area. We felt that we had enough physical evidence at the crime scene, and based upon the leads and the physical evidence, we could go forward asking for search warrants of multiple locations.

We have made no arrests in this case yet. We are looking at several individuals, and the search warrants are one more step in putting together all of the information that we need to solve this crime.

HEMMER: So you are saying that you have served search warrants, not just at this apartment complex that I described, but perhaps many others. Can you tell us how many, Sheriff?

CARONA: This is -- it's 3:30 in the morning here in California, and the last briefing that I had, there were four locations that search warrants were served at.

HEMMER: OK. You have also said, as of yesterday, that you believe that the suspect is still in southern California. What leads you to believe that?

CARONA: There are a number of things that lead us to believe that the suspect may be in the southern California area, clearly, within the state of California. A lot of that is the analysis of physical evidence we have collected at both crime scenes in Stanton, as well as in Riverside County, as well as information that we have been getting from the public, and investigation of that information. HEMMER: Yes, we have shown to our viewers the description of this man for about two days running. In fact, we can put his composite sketch back on the screen here. There are some who have suggested that police actually know the identity of the man that's described here. Is that a possibility, sir?

CARONA: We are looking at several different individuals, and we're going to narrow this as quickly as we possibly can. We have not made an arrest yet. And so we still need the public to give us any and all information that they have that may lead to an arrest of the man that killed Samantha. We are hoping that the individuals that we're looking at through our investigative process that one of them will come out to be Samantha's killer, and we can put this case to rest.

HEMMER: In southern California, I have to imagine part of the impossibilities that you are now facing as there are countless Hispanic men that fit this description, and countless green cars in southern California. Is that the pursuit that you still have at this point?

CARONA: Yes. It's difficult, because we have a large Latino population, and we have a number of green cars that meet that description. But we'll take all the leads that the public can give us. We have had over 2,000 leads that have come in. We have a team of 400 investigators that are working all those leads. We'll take as much as we can get. It may take us a little while to get through it, but I guarantee you we'll get through it, and we'll find this man.

HEMMER: Sheriff, do you have the DNA evidence on-hand right now that you need to make a match when that time arrives?

CARONA: I can't confirm for you that we do or don't have DNA. I will share with you that there was a tremendous amount of physical evidence that we were able to get from the crime scene here in Stanton, as well as out at Riverside and from Samantha's body. But we're still analyzing that, and so I don't have any positive confirmation one way or the other for you.

HEMMER: It was about two days ago when the grandmother of Samantha had the awful and grim task of identifying the body. Have you had contact with the family lately? And if so, how are they doing, sir?

CARONA: I have had contact with the family over the last couple of days, and they are doing as well as you can expect. They have a daughter that was murdered. And they keep hearing over and over again that her daughter -- their daughter was sexually assaulted before she was murdered. I don't know how a family copes with that. But as best they can, they seem to be getting through each day, hoping that we're going to catch this killer.

HEMMER: Good luck again today, Sheriff.

CARONA: Thank you.

HEMMER: Thanks for being with us -- Michael Carona, again live in southern California.

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