Search Pressed for Girl Feared Kidnaped

In addition to family members and friends, registered sex offenders were interviewed by detectives Monday in hopes of finding an 8-year-old girl believed kidnaped at a swap meet.

Sylvia Elaine Mangos of Twentynine Palms was last seen about 8 a.m. Sunday at the Yucca Valley Swap Meet at the Sky Drive-in, 110 miles east of Los Angeles.

Hundreds of volunteers and tracking dogs searched Sunday and Monday for the girl, said Deputy Jerry Bucklin of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Sylvia is 4 feet tall, weighs 85 pounds, has light-brown, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a blue dress, a denim jacket, white socks with yellow trim and white tennis shoes.

Bucklin said the girl’s family and friends were interviewed by detectives on Monday, as were people who attended the swap meet.

“We also contacted registered sex offenders in the area,” Bucklin said, adding that he did not know how many people that might involve.

Flyers were distributed to law enforcement officials in surrounding counties, including Los Angeles, describing Sylvia and a pickup truck seen leaving the swap meet Sunday morning about the time she was last seen, said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Bryant.

“At this time the matter is being treated as a kidnaping and investigators are seeking the identity of two white male subjects between the ages of 45 and 50, one wearing a white shirt and driving a small white pickup with light-colored camper shell,” sheriff’s dispatcher Gwend Blizard said.

“The vehicle was seen leaving the swap meet about the same time as Sylvia’s disappearance. At this time we are uncertain that this vehicle is associated with her disappearance,” Blizard said.