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American Morning

Interview with Larry Waldie

Aired August 02, 2002 - 07:14   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: Two California families breathing much easier today; 16 and 17-year-old teenagers kidnapped at gunpoint early yesterday. Then late yesterday, they were found alive and their abductor was shot to death by police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERB MARRIS, FATHER OF JACQUELINE MARRIS: I want to tell you man, we had a lot of support back here. And I didn't lose faith in these guys until I got the word, and I just -- it was a big relief. I couldn't believe it.

This AMBER system that you guys put out was actually put in place to help these victims, such as mine, my little child, Jackie. I can't wait to see her. I love her so much. If you're watching this, honey, I love you. I can't wait until you get home. I just want to thank everybody for helping out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Wow! Police say the girls were sexually assaulted, and the man responsible, Roy Ratliff, appeared to be close to killing both when deputies arrived, and a gun battle broke out.

One of the men who helped mount a successful manhunt, Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie, he is live with us this morning in Monterrey Park, California.

Good morning to you, sir -- good to have you with us today.

ASSISTANT SHERIFF LARRY WALDIE, L.A. SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Thank you, Bill -- good morning.

HEMMER: What makes you believe that the suspect, now dead, was about to kill these girls?

WALDIE: Well, basically his background and what he did at the scene, tying up the two boys with duct tape, abducting both girls. 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 these girls and do away with them.

HEMMER: How close was it? WALDIE: I don't think -- I think very close. I think he had finally found the spot that he was looking for when we finally got a hold of him and contacted him. I think it was pretty close. I think the girls are very lucky -- very close.

HEMMER: How were the girls doing late last night? Any contact with them or their families?

WALDIE: Yes, they are fine. We actually flew one of the girls back home in our aircraft with her family from the hospital. The other chose to drive home. But they were in good spirits, and they are doing fine.

HEMMER: Roy Ratliff, the man who is dead now, wanted for a rape back in Las Vegas. How brash was this move for this man to abduct two teenagers at gunpoint, 2:00 in the morning, tie up their boyfriends with duct tape and then steal one of the cars?

WALDIE: Well, he was a very bad felon, had been at one of our more harder prison facilities, Folsom, had a long history of violence and rape. And I think the first one he took, he had intended to commit rape. And then when the second car pulled up, he used the opportunity to take a second one, and he had no fear of what was going to happen, because he was going to do what he had to do to accomplish his needs, and I believe finish it off later. He was just one of those terrible people that were on the streets that was about to do some terrible things to young people.

HEMMER: He had these girls for about 12 hours. What did he say to them during that time?

WALDIE: I don't have that information. That's part of the investigation, and we have talked to the girls, but I haven't talked to the detective yet.

HEMMER: The AMBER Alert is given a lot of credit in this case. It was about two weeks ago when Samantha Runnion, unfortunately, was picked up, abducted and her body was later found. About that time, here on AMERICAN MORNING, we talked about this very thing, the AMBER Alert. It was my understanding to the people we talked to that the AMBER Alert was put into effect in the Runnion case perhaps regionally, not statewide. Is that your interpretation as well? And is that the reason why they are saying this is the first time it's gone statewide?

WALDIE: Yes, I believe it was done only originally. As a matter of fact, we just got the final information from the governor's office and the California Highway Patrol last Friday. They sent us their policy, and it was quite unusual for us. We usually, before we put out information or something to do for all of our sheriff's stations, we write a policy statement. But because of the urgency of the circumstances to ensure that we had the availability of the system, we put it out last Friday under a California Highway Patrol policy before we wrote our own policy.

So it did go out for the first time for us statewide, and it was a very effective tool.

HEMMER: Listen, we just saw some videotape here, and part of that program not only communicating through television and radio, the media and police departments, but also to put up a license plate number literally on electronic signs up and down the interstates in California. I don't know if we can see the videotape again, but do you think it was the AMBER Alert that saved the girls' lives in this case, or was it police work, or was it a combination of both?

WALDIE: Absolutely a combination. It was good detective work, but the clues came in. We were able to track the car. We had several sightings. We had been following the car going from actually Quartz Hill all the way up Highway 14 to 178, a Cal-Trans employee, another citizen and then eventually the animal control officer.

If we did not have these eyes and ears that were tracking that car, we might not have ever had that Kern County sheriff get to the car when he finally spotted it and got to it. So it was very important for this system to have been in effect.

HEMMER: Hey, great work, and for a change, a great ending, too.

WALDIE: Thank you.

HEMMER: Thank you for your time.

WALDIE: Thank you so much.

HEMMER: All right. Larry Waldie, the assistant sheriff of the L.A. Sheriff's Department out there in Monterrey, California today -- Monterrey Park, rather.

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