Nuns’ Stolen Religious Statue Recovered Intact; 2 Teens Held

SANTA ANA —  A group of nuns had their prayers answered Wednesday when police recovered a 5-foot statue of the Blessed Mother of Guadalupe stolen Monday from outside the Poor Clare Missionaries nursery school.

Police said witnesses alerted by media coverage of the stolen statue called in tips that led to Wednesday’s arrest of two teen-agers, one of whom had erected the statue inside his apartment as part of a morbid display that included black shrouds, infant headstones and wall paintings depicting death scenes.

Investigators said they could not tell if the display was part of a satanic shrine, but they said the statue was not desecrated. “We haven’t been able to make out the significance of the drawings” on the wall, said police investigator David Salceda.

The suspects were identified as Malaina Hunt, 18, of Fountain Valley, and Jason Olejos, 19, of Anaheim. The statue was recovered at Olejos’ home in the 1800 block of La Palma Avenue.

They were booked at the Orange County Jail on Wednesday night and the case will be presented today to the district attorney’s office, which is expected to charge the suspects with grand theft, Salceda said.

Nuns at the nursery school reported the statue missing about 11:30 p.m. Monday. The $3,500 figure was unbolted from its pedestal and placed in the trunk of a car, Salceda said.

“The sisters had been praying for the (return of the) statue every day because they had worked two years to raise the funds to buy it,” Salceda said.

A police spokeswoman added that the news was especially welcome because “I don’t think many of us thought the chances of finding it were very good.”