Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

DNA Allegedly Links Avila to Runnion's Murder

Aired July 21, 2002 - 08:02   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back to our top story -- the criminal investigation into the Samantha Runnion case. Police in Stanton, California are confident they have the man responsible for kidnapping and killing the 5-year-old girl last week.

CNN has learned DNA allegedly links Alejandro Avila to the killing, as we just told you.

CNN's Anne McDermott picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Monday, 5-year-old Samantha Runnion is playing just outside her apartment, when a stranger drives up -- this child is the only one who say what happened next.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: He threw her in the car, really quick, then he left, really quick.

MCDERMOTT: And Samantha screamed and screamed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Baby, I love you, you were such a good girl, you're so cleaver, please -- ask your capturer to let you go.

MCDERMOTT: The sheer brazenness of the daylight abduction hit everyone hard, including the cops.

SHERIFF MIKE CARONA, ORANGE COUNTY, 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: Was it an adult body?

JUSTIN: No, it's baby, and I think it might even be the little girl on the news -- it's a little girl, I swear, we just ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDERMOTT: Samantha had been sexually assaulted, her naked body left in an undescribed pose, which investigators said was 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything on television, anymore 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 was found, and they questioned 27-year-old Alejandro Avila. Avila's mother said he's innocent.

ABELINA AVILA, MOTHER OF ALEJANDRO AVILA: He's not the type of guy that would do that.

MCDERMOTT: But Avila was arrested. The sheriff said they got the right guy.

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 serioius.

MCDERMOTT: Anne McDermott, CNN, Stanton, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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