Girl, 11, escapes would-be abductor

A knife-wielding man who tried to abduct an 11-year-old girl in southern Orange County on Thursday may be the same person who tried to snatch an 11-year-old girl last week in the same region, authorities said.

In both cases, the girls escaped unharmed.

In the latest incident, the man got out of a beat-up pickup truck and held a large kitchen knife to the neck of a girl who attends Don Juan Avila Middle School in Aliso Viejo, said Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

The attack occurred just before 9 a.m. as the girl walked to her bus stop, Amormino said.

The girl told investigators that the man held onto her for about a minute before she was able to get away when he loosened his grip.

“She broke away from him and ran to her residence,” Amormino said. “He jumped in his truck and drove away.”

The assailant was described as 30 to 40 years old, 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 11 inches tall, with a medium build, short spiky brown hair and dark eyes. The vehicle was described as a banged-up white pickup with a camper shell and blue stripes on its sides.

On March 16, a man tried to abduct a girl at Palisades Elementary School in Capistrano Beach. In that case, Amormino said, the attacker approached and then chased the girl, who ran to school. No weapon was seen in the incident.

“There are similarities, down to the brown, spiky hair,” Amormino said of the two descriptions. “Until you actually catch him, it’s hard to say.”

Olga Garden, whose 5-year-old son attends Don Juan, said she was frightened by the news.

“It’s scary. We don’t expect these things to happen down here,” she said. “It’s sad we have to teach our children to be afraid. But that’s what we have to do for them to protect themselves.”

Garden said she would never forget the case of Samantha Runnion, the 5-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and killed after being abducted outside her family’s Stanton condominium complex in broad daylight in 2002. “Personally, I can’t get out of my mind the story of Samantha Runnion,” Garden said. “Thank God this little girl [on Thursday] was able to get away. She’s one of the lucky ones.”

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Sheriff’s Department at (714) 628-7170.

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christine.hanley@latimes.com