Arrest Made In Girl´s Kidnap, Killing Case

Police have made an arrest in connection with the kidnapping and killing of five-year-old Samantha Runnion.

Sheriff Michael Carona said that shortly before 10 a.m. today investigators arrested 27-year-old Alejandro Avila. The sheriff said no more information concerning the investigation and the arrest was expected to be released before 6 p.m. today.

The announcement was made after the sheriff-elect of Riverside County, where the body was found, released a 911 tape of a male caller who reported finding the body on a rural highway.

The caller told the operator that he was scared and was going home.

Locations where search warrants were served have included an apartment complex near Lake Elsinore, not far from where Samantha’s body was found. Before the arrest was announced, Adelina Avila had told reporters her 27-year-old son was being detained.

The mother said: “I don´t think my son did anything, but I notice he is cooperating … I don´t have anything against that. He hasn’t been through this before so he doesn´t know what’s going on.”

The child’s body was found Tuesday on the edge of the Cleveland National Forest, about 50 miles from Stanton, the day after her kidnapping.