Two Calif. teens kidnapped in car stolen in Vegas

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002 | 11:38 a.m.

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

LANCASTER, Calif. -- Two teenage girls were kidnapped at gunpoint early today and taken away in a vehicle that belonged to one of the victims' friends, authorities said.

The car used in the kidnapping had been carjacked from an elderly couple in Las Vegas last month.

While the descriptions of the suspect in the carjacking and the kidnapping were similar, authorities were not able to say it was the same man, said Special Agent Daron Borst, spokesman for the FBI's Las Vegas office.

Tamera Brooks, 16, and Jaqueline Marris, 17, were sitting in separate cars with two male friends in a lover's lane in Lancaster, Calif., when they were approached by a man shortly after 1 a.m. The man forced Tamera out of her vehicle at gunpoint, then approached Jaqueline, who was in a 1980 Ford Bronco, authorities said.

The man, described in his mid-30s to early 40s, tied up one of the friends and sped away in the white Ford Bronco with a gray camper shell with both girls inside, said Sgt. Joe Efflandt of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The girls apparently did not know each other nor their abductor, Efflandt said.

The man left behind the 1999 gray four-door Saturn. A man carjacked the Saturn from a 64-year-old woman July 18 about 9:20 a.m. from her home on Beverly Way, near Saint Louis Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard South.

FBI agents this morning were at Metro Police's robbery office working with detectives, said Lt. Ted Snodgrass of Metro's robbery unit.

Borst said all information will be sent to authorities in California. Borst said authorities have no way of knowing if the suspect will come to Las Vegas, "but it's always a possibility he could show up here."

Efflandt said the man poured gasoline over one of the vehicles, apparently trying to torch it, but was unsuccessful.

"He told me he was going to kill me but he didn't want to," an 18-year-old man told KNBC-TV. The teen, who had duct tape on his arms and legs, said he was blindfolded and tied to a post while the kidnapper took away his female friend. "He just kept telling her to stay down, keep her head down, don't look at him."

The suspect in the Las Vegas carjacking also threatened to kill and pointed a small silver revolver at the victims, according to a Metro Police report.

In the carjacking on July 18, the suspect approached the woman as she left her home and went to her car. The suspect demanded. The woman responded she didn't have any money and tried to get into her car.

"The suspect grabbed (her) by the neck and started choking her. He then said, 'give me your car keys,' " according to the report.

Lancaster is 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles.