Kidnapper not suspect in LV disappearance

Keith Paul

Monday, May 7, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.

An ex-convict found guilty last week of snatching and molesting an 8-year-old girl in California is not a suspect in the unsolved disappearance of Las Vegan Karla Rodriguez in 1999, Metro Police officials have told the Sun.

Curtis Dean Anderson, who faces life in prison when sentenced next month in California, was released from a San Jose, Calif., hospital on Oct. 1, 1999, after a serious motorcycle accident and was confined to a wheelchair for weeks, if not months.

That makes it unlikely that he was in Las Vegas on Oct. 20, when Rodriguez, then 7, was snatched, police said.

Detectives checked out several leads and have never found anything to link Anderson to Rodriguez's disappearance.

"Based on the current information, he's not a suspect," said Detective Roberto Juarez, who has been investigating Rodriguez's disappearance. "The window of opportunity, combined with his condition at the time, leads us to believe he's not involved with Karla Rodriguez."

The case remains open, but detectives have no new leads.

Rodriguez, who will turn 9 in September, was last seen playing with friends a few blocks from her home near the corner of Sixth Street and St. Louis Avenue about 7 p.m. on Oct. 20, 1999.

Anderson, 40, was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and 10 sex-related counts in connection with the August abduction of an 8-year-old Vallejo, Calif., girl.

Anderson snatched an 8-year-old girl off the sidewalk as she was on her way home from school. He chained her to the passenger seat of his 1984 Oldsmobile, refused to feed her, forced her to drink beer, wine and root beer schnapps and repeatedly sexually assaulted her, prosecutors maintained.

The girl's ordeal ended after 44 hours, when she found Anderson's keys, unlocked herself and was rescued by a passing truck driver, who noticed the girl and guessed she was in trouble.

A few hours after the verdict, Anderson told a reporter for the Fairfield Daily Republic that he was responsible for a string of murders of girls, including another high-profile kidnap and killing in California.

Anderson told the newspaper he abducted and killed 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild, who disappeared from Vallejo in December 1999. Her skull was found in January on a rural road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Anderson said he had also kidnapped and sexually assaulted 10 other girls over the past 30 years. He remains a suspect in the Fairchild case, but no charges have been filed. Police say they need credible information to link him to that case.

His attorney, Carl Spieckerman, said he doubted the credibility of Anderson's confessions and thought the convict was manipulating the media.

"I don't know why he's making these confessions," Spieckerman said. "He's never said anything to me about any of it. I think he knows he's going to prison for the rest of his life and wanted to talk to someone, and this is how he can get someone in to talk to him."

As for Rodriguez, Spieckerman said the September 1999 motorcycle accident severely injured Anderson's femur and hip. Anderson was released from Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose on Oct. 1 and went to a boarding house to recuperate, Spieckerman said, reading from hospital records.

Another parolee testified at Anderson's recent trial that he helped care for Anderson in the boarding house, changing his bandages over the next two or three months, Spieckerman said.

"I can't imagine a scenario that he was in any condition to drive if he had to have someone help him with his recuperation," Spieckerman said.

Anderson was in Las Vegas in March 2000, when he registered as an ex-felon in Clark County. He was in town and staying in a downtown motel, near the area where Rodriguez was last seen.

Anderson has been in and out of prison 10 times in California in the past 14 years for convictions and parole violations, California prison officials said.