Kidnap sparks nationwide search
Suspect has history as sexual offender
By Melissa Pinion-Whitt and Rod Leveque, Staff Writers



ONTARIO - Police launched a nationwide manhunt Wednesday for a missing Ontario High School girl and the sex offender suspected of kidnapping her.
Authorities said they fear for the safety of 14-year-old Laura Martinez, who disappeared before she made it to school Tuesday. They believe she was taken by 28-year-old Elias Flores Martinez, a convict who previously tried to snatch young girls in Ontario and Mexico. A motive for the abduction remained unknown Wednesday, but police were beginning to suspect the man may have befriended the girl and convinced her to leave with him.

"This is very typical of sexual predators," said Ontario police Detective Diane Galindo.

Laura Martinez, who is the suspect's second cousin, was last seen Tuesday morning when her mother dropped her off at Ontario High.

The 10th-grader never made it to class and didn't come home. Her mother got a call from the man that afternoon saying he had the teen. He put her on the phone to prove it, police said.

Police issued an Amber Alert on Tuesday night and sent information and photos to the Border Patrol. A $500,000 arrest warrant for kidnapping was issued for Elias Martinez.

Investigators are especially concerned for the girl's safety because of Elias Martinez's criminal history.

Court records show he has been required to register as a sex offender since October 2000, when he was convicted of sexual battery in San Bernardino County.

The conviction stemmed from an incident in which Martinez and another man tried to abduct two girls, ages 15 and 17, from an Ontario street, according to police reports and court records.

As in the current case, both girls knew him.

The older girl told police Martinez groped her and tore her shirt when he tried to drag her into his car. She said he told his friend to grab the younger girl and throw her into the car so he could have sex with her, according to the reports.

The girls escaped after a 12-year-old boy saw what was happening and called police.

Martinez was initially charged in that case with two counts of assault with intent to rape. The charges were reduced to a single count of sexual battery as part of a plea bargain in which Martinez was ordered to spend three months in jail and three years on probation.

A judge also ordered him to leave the country, stay away from underage girls and register as a sex offender.

His name does not appear in the state's sex offender database, indicating he never registered.

It appears, however, he did leave the country.

Only a few months ago, Martinez tried to abduct a 17-year-old relative in Guerrero, Mexico, Laura's parents told police.

Police said the man then fled from Mexican authorities back to the United States.

The family lost contact with Martinez after that incident but recently saw him in Ontario.

Ontario High Principal Rod Hust said school security and police remained on the lookout in case the man returned to the school. Some of the girl's classmates didn't seem surprised by the girl's disappearance, Hust said.

"Some of the kids seemed to indicate that she was going to run away with this guy," he said.

Police are investigating the possibility.

"Officers are trying to interview all the friends to see if there is any validity to their statements," Galindo said.

Laura is 5-feet-2 inches tall, 120 pounds and has long black hair. She was last seen wearing a white blouse with the word Princess on the front. She was also wearing blue jeans.

The suspect is 5-feet-5 inches tall, 160 pounds with black hair and a thin mustache.

Martinez was in a 1992 two-door black or dark gray Nissan with tinted windows and license plate number 2XNL159.

Detectives spent Wednesday interviewing family and friends of the girl. The emotional toll, meanwhile, has already worn heavily on the girl's family.

Laura's mother, Maria Martinez, collapsed in a bathroom at the Ontario police station and was taken away by ambulance.

"She started feeling weak and said she wasn't feeling well," Galindo said. "As a safety precaution, we decided to call the paramedics."

Ontario paramedics wheeled the woman out of the station about 2 p.m. as her husband, Clemente, followed.

Anyone with information on the girl's disappearance may call Ontario police Detective Byron Lee at (909) 395-2001.

Melissa Pinion-Whitt can be reached by e-mail m_pinion-whitt@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9378

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