What Happened To Jeannette Tamayo? MYSTERIES UNVEILED

The Jeannette Tamayo Case, 9 Year Old Girl Uses True Crime Skills From Favourite TV Show Manipulate Captor

San Jose police fanned out through the city Friday afternoon in search of a 9-year-old girl taken from her home by a man who authorities say savagely beat her mother and brother.

Minutes after receiving a frantic 911 call at 4:37 p.m. from a neighbour, police descended on the quiet Southwind Drive neighbourhood and began to search for Jeannette Tamayo, a fourth-grader at Blossom Valley School.

Investigators had little information to go on because Jeanette's mother, whose name was not released, was dazed and bloodied by the attack and unable to tell them much about what happened, said police Sgt. Steve Dixon.

But a neighbour provided what could be crucial evidence: videotape from her security camera, which she said had captured the suspect's tan or silver four- door sedan speeding away. San Jose Police issued a citywide Amber Alert, but the California Highway Patrol said it was unable to issue a statewide alert because the description of the vehicle was too vague and they had no licence plate number.

Instead, the CHP told all officers in the state to be on the lookout for the suspect's car and stood poised to issue a statewide Amber Alert if additional identifying information is obtained.

"Our main focus right now is this little girl who is missing," Dixon said. "We're going to do everything we can to find her."

The girl's mother arrived at her home in the 5900 block of Southwind Drive at 4:30 p.m. and found a stranger in the house with her son and daughter, Dixon said. She confronted him and was hit repeatedly in the face and upper body before the assailant turned his attention to her son. Police said he is 12 or 13 years old and fought to protect his sister.

After beating the mother and son, the intruder grabbed Jeanette and carried her to the garage, where he'd parked his car, Dixon said. He opened the garage door and sped away, hitting the shrubs and narrowly missing the mother's burgundy Ford Expedition parked in the driveway.

"The woman then staggered to a neighbour's house," Dixon said. "That woman called 911."

TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

The woman and her son were treated at a local hospital Friday night, but authorities could provide no specific information about their injuries or condition. A neighbour said she heard the mother, her face bloodied, tearfully telling police, "My daughter. I want my daughter."

"To think of your child being taken," said the neighbour, Karen Kamfolt. "It's very scary."

Jeannette was last seen wearing black pants and a green shirt. She has long black hair with blond highlights in the front. She is about 4 feet 11 inches tall.

Police could describe the kidnapper only as a Latino man in his early 20s, wearing a beanie cap and a light-colored T-shirt. He was clean-shaven and might have a light moustache and a "big scratch" on his face where the girl's mother clawed him, police said. He may have been driving a Mazda sedan.

The children's stepfather returned home as police were combing the house for evidence. Neighbours said the family moved into the house a few months ago and said they didn't notice anything unusual about them except that they didn't seem to speak much English.

Word of the brazen abduction raced quickly through the neighbourhood, a quiet community of well-kept homes with tile roofs and neatly trimmed lawns. Hulking recreational vehicles sit in some driveways alongside shiny new SUVs and family sedans, and American flags fly from many porches. It is a neighbourhood, some said, where the last crime anyone can remember was a spate of car burglaries a few months back.

NEIGHBORHOOD SHOCKED

"To know a little girl is gone, it's unnerving," Kamfolt said.

The neighbourhood teems with young children, some of whom rode their bicycles on the sidewalk as twilight fell and police combed Jeanette's house for evidence.

Eleven-year-old Trevor Salustro said he walked home from the school bus stop with Jeanette about 4 p.m. Friday. He described her as a "latchkey kid" who often played with friends who lived on the same block. He was left shaken by the incident, even after being questioned by the police.

"It's scary," he said.

"Now he knows why we tell him not to go anywhere without us," added his mother, Tina Salustro.

As darkness fell, people, many with young children in tow, continued to gather just beyond the police tape surrounding Jeanette's house. Lorrie Munoz said she brought her children Tiyana, 4, and Isaiah, 3, to show them "the police and the media so they understand why we tell them not to go outside without an adult."

She paused to take in the scene, then added, "The world is crazy nowadays."