Oakland Calfornia, Daphne Webb-21 Month Old

[meme]

Toddler kidnapped from SUV in Oakland

Updated 10:00 pm, Wednesday, July 10, 2013

A 21-month-old girl was reported kidnapped from her family's parked SUV outside an East Oakland mini-market Wednesday, prompting an intensive search for a woman who witnesses told police led the toddler down the street, authorities said.

Dozens of police officers from Oakland and other agencies and FBI agents, some with German shepherds, went door to door in the neighborhood around 79th Avenue and International Boulevard looking for Daphne Viola Webb after her father reported her abduction at 11 a.m.

Police later said they wanted anyone who had seen the father within the past 30 days to contact them, calling it part of a "wide focus" on the case. They said he was not a suspect.

The father, John Webb, told police he had ducked into Gazzali's Supermarket at 7838 International Blvd. to buy an energy drink, leaving his daughter with an adult relative in his Ford Explorer, said Officer Johnna Watson, a police spokeswoman.

When he came out of the store, he said, the girl was gone.

Police said the relative who was with Daphne was disabled, but gave no details. Witnesses described her as an older woman.

The father said he had not seen the kidnapper, but people in the area soon reported seeing a woman carrying Daphne in her arms down the sidewalk, Watson said.

Police said the woman was described as a Latina or light-skinned black woman in her 30s, with very long black hair. She was wearing a light-colored top and blue jeans, police said.

Daphne is black, with short, curly black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing clothing similar to orange pajamas with pink hearts, and pink socks.

About three hours after police issued an Amber Alert, Watson gave an evening briefing at which she said police wanted anyone who had seen Webb, 49, or his daughter within the past 30 days to contact them.

She said investigators still considered the case to be a kidnapping, and said of Webb, "We are not calling him a suspect."

Watson said the need to "keep an open mind to everything that occurred" prompted the unusual public request.

"We want to be cautious, careful and very thorough," Watson said. "We need to have a very wide focus."

She added that police had interviewed Webb and Daphne's mother, who does not live with him, along with other family members. She described them as "extremely cooperative."

Police continue to look for the woman whom neighbors reported seeing leading Daphne away, Watson said.

Acquaintances said Webb lived with Daphne and his mother, who is in her mid-80s.

"I hate that this has happened to them; they are just a great family," said Bill Owens, the owner of a martial arts studio who lived near Webb until the family moved to the Oak Knoll neighborhood a few months ago. "He was just an all-out great guy. He was always trying to do good for people."

Daniel Chavez, a clerk at the mini-market, said Webb was a regular at the store. On Wednesday, Chavez said, "he was here maybe one, two minutes. And then this happened."

Oakland police asked anyone who sees Daphne or has other information about the case to call them at [phone].

www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Toddler-kidnapped-from-SUV-in-Oakland-4657904.php

[meme]

Oakland police search father's home,shoreline park after reported abduction of 21-month-old girl

OAKLAND -- Hours after authorities reported that a 21-month-old girl had been kidnapped in East Oakland, investigators had searched the house of her father and were focusing on an Oakland shoreline park late Wednesday.

Police were also seeking witnesses who could verify seeing the girl with her father in the last 30 days -- but a police spokeswoman said repeatedly that the father was not a suspect.

The girl's father, John Anthony Webb, told police that just after 11 a.m. he left an elderly relative -- possibly his 87-year-old mother -- and the toddler, Daphne Viola Webb, in his black Ford SUV and went into Gazzali's Supermarket at 78th and International Boulevard.

The store's clerk, Daniel Chavez, said

Webb bought an energy drink and was in and out of the corner store quickly. Webb told police that he returned to his SUV and found the disabled relative alone and Daphne missing from the back seat.

Investigators immediately interviewed Webb, as well as Daphne's mother --whose identity was not released -- and other relatives, according to Oakland police Officer Johnna Watson. What the family members said and the state of the relationship between Daphne's mother and father was not known Wednesday evening.

Police and the FBI also spent several hours at a home on Greenridge Drive, where the family has been living, searching the home and talking to neighbors in an attempt to verify the father's story, police said. It was not immediately known Wednesday night what, if anything, was found at the home or what investigators learned.

They then turned their attention to the Martin Luther King Regional Shoreline Park at Doolittle Drive and Swan Way, beginning a search of the park around sunset. Police have not said why they searched the park, which is not far from the Oakland airport.

Watson said late Wednesday that police were searching every place in the city that they knew the father and daughter had recently visited together.

Earlier Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties and search focused on the area where the girl was last seen. But police and at least seven search dogs quickly fanned out along International Boulevard and into the side streets in search of the girl and later to other parts of Oakland.

Daphne is described as black, about 2 feet tall and weighing about 30 pounds. She has short, black, curly hair, a medium complexion, brown eyes and is missing part of her left ear. She was last seen wearing an orange, two-piece pajama set with pink hearts and pink socks.

Police said the girl was taken by an unidentified black or Hispanic woman between d 40 years old who had long, straight black hair and was wearing a light-colored shirt and jeans. Witnesses said the woman walked away from the car with the child, and authorities did not identify a vehicle associated with the kidnapping.

A neighbor at Webb's most recent listed address, about half a mile from the site of the kidnapping, said Webb is Daphne's father and had lived there for years with the child's mother as well as his own mother.

The neighbor, Bill Owens, 70, said the family had moved out of the home around Christmas, around the time that Daphne had started walking. Webb had already raised two daughters now in their 20s at the same home, said Owens, who had trained the girls in martial arts when they were younger.

"He's just an all-around great guy," Owens said of Webb, noting that for years, Webb had drawn lines of people to his front door as he gave away food, clothing, bicycles and more. "He knew everybody. He was just always trying to do good.

"John took real good care of his mom. I sure hope this is (just) a family dispute of some sort."

Many young children go missing in Oakland every year, but most are found in a few hours, often with a mother or father involved in a custody battle.

Four years ago, however, a 5-year-old Fremont boy named Hasanni Campbell went missing from a car parked outside a shoe store in Oakland's Rockridge district, on Aug. 10, 2009. Hasanni, who was born with cerebral palsy and wore braces on his feet, was never seen again.

Hasanni and his younger sister lived with their aunt, Jennifer Campbell, who is also their legal guardian, and her fiance, Louis Ross. Police said Ross had parked the car, taken the little girl with him and gone inside the store, where the aunt was working. He told police the boy was gone when he returned to the car.

Three weeks later, the couple were arrested on suspicion of murder, but prosecutors declined to charge them, citing a lack of evidence. The case remains open, and Hasanni has not been found.

Staff writers Harry Harris and Erin Ivie contributed to this report.

www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_23635013/oakland-police-search-missing-girl

[meme]

California toddler reported kidnapped from parent's car

Fri Jul 12, 2013 12:44am EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A father who said his toddler daughter was abducted from a car he left parked outside a California supermarket while he ran into the store was arrested for child endangerment as police pressed their search on Thursday for the missing girl.

The father, John Webb, 49, of Oakland, was jailed in lieu of $100,000 bond and was scheduled for arraignment on Friday in connection with the disappearance of his 21-month-old daughter, Daphne Viola Webb, authorities said.

Webb told investigators he left a disabled adult relative and his daughter in his sport utility vehicle while he dashed into an East Oakland store for a beverage at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday, police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said.

When Webb returned to his vehicle, he told police, the girl had vanished. Watson said at least one witness reported seeing an unidentified woman carrying Daphne away from Webb's SUV.

Webb was not considered a suspect, Watson said. But she added that he was arrested because he left a 21-month-old girl in the car with his 87-year-old mother who suffers from dementia.

Meanwhile, police and FBI agents continued their search for the toddler, who was last seen wearing an orange, two-piece pajama set with pink hearts, and pink socks, authorities said.

Police asked that anyone who had seen the father and daughter together in the days or hours before the incident contact investigators, and officers searched a shoreline park often frequented by Webb and the girl.

The search continued into Thursday evening with dozens of officers, including homicide detectives and FBI agents, search-and-rescue dogs, a helicopter and a boat with an underwater camera, Watson said.

A local NBC television affiliate reported that police had searched Webb's Oakland home with dogs.

mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE96B05D20130712?irpc=932

[meme]

With focus on dad, still no sign of toddler

Updated 6:12 pm, Tuesday, July 16, 2013

(07-16) 18:10 PDT OAKLAND -- It's been a week since Daphne Viola Webb's father reported she had been kidnapped from outside an East Oakland market. But despite numerous searches throughout the city - and an intense police investigation that is largely focused on the father - the toddler still hasn't been found.

The case has drawn widespread attention, and not only because Daphne is just 21 months old. Her father, John Anthony Webb, 49, was briefly jailed on suspicion of child endangerment based on his statement to police that he left his daughter in his Ford Expedition last Wednesday with his 87-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia.

Alameda County prosecutors declined to file charges, and Webb was released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on Friday evening.

He told reporters that he had nothing to do with his daughter's disappearance, maintaining that someone kidnapped Daphne and stole his mother's purse when he left them alone during an 11 a.m. stop for an energy drink at Gazzali's market at 79th Avenue and International Boulevard.

Police, however, say the last confirmed sighting they have of Daphne dates from late June.

"I still believe she's alive," Webb said. "I'm not going to say my daughter's dead. I'm still having faith that she's alive. I'm praying for her. I'm worried about her."

He asked whoever had Daphne to "feed her french fries" because she "loved potatoes." He added that Daphne "loved the movie 'Cars 2.' She's happy about that movie."

The girl was last seen wearing two-piece orange pajamas with pink hearts and pink socks. Part of her left ear is missing, police said.

Investigators have said they have no suspects in the case, despite at least two searches - details of which are sealed - of the Oak Knoll neighborhood where Webb lives with his mother.

Daphne's mother, Kiana Davis, is not a suspect, police say, and Davis has publicly vouched for Webb.

On Tuesday, Davis and several dozen relatives and friends stood silently outside police headquarters holding pictures of Daphne as Davis' father, Kevin Davis,addressed reporters, saying attention should remain on bringing the girl home.

"We have been deeply troubled that over the past few days, it seems the focus was somewhat shifted from bringing our baby home to other issues," he said, declining to elaborate.

The family said it had established a website, www.findbabydaphne.com,to assist in search efforts.

They were joined by Marc Klaas, the father of murder victim Polly Klaas, who said any spotlight on family members is a natural part of the police investigation.

"It just implies that we need to find people that have seen the child over the course of the last several weeks," Klaas said. "You can read what you want into it. I think there are a lot of suspicions out there. They need to be either alleviated or confirmed."

The case has drawn comparisons to that of Hasanni Campbell, a 6-year-old Fremont boy with cerebral palsy who disappeared in 2009. Hasanni's foster parent, Louis Ross,said the boy was snatched from his BMW as he parked near his fiancée's shoe store in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood.

But police later said they believe the boy was never in the car. Ross and his fiancée were briefly jailed but released without charges filed. The boy is still missing.

www.sfgate.com/crime/article/With-focus-on-dad-still-no-sign-of-toddler-4668902.php