Suspect shot to death

By Christina Almedeida, Associated Press, 08/01/02

Jacqueline Marris, 17 (AP) Tamara Brooks, 16 (AP)

LANCASTER, Calif. -- Two teenage girls abducted at gunpoint early Thursday from a lovers' lane were rescued 100 miles away after their kidnapper crashed his getaway car and was shot to death by sheriff's deputies, authorities said.

"The girls are safe," Los Angeles County Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie said, ending a 12-hour manhunt across the Southwest and bringing cheers from friends and relatives of the girls.

Tamara Brooks, 16, and Jacqueline Marris, 17, sobbed after their rescue and were bandaged for what appeared to be minor injuries before they were taken to a Bakersfield hospital for a checkup.

Hospital administrator Peter Bryan said they were "coherent, awake, alert," but he declined to discuss their condition.

The kidnapper was identified as 37-year-old Roy Ratliff, who had a long criminal history and was charged in October with raping a 19-year-old relative but was never apprehended.

The girls were abducted at 1 a.m. in the Quartz Hill area outside Lancaster by a gunman who left the girls' dates bound with duct tape. The kidnapper drove off in a Ford Bronco that belonged to Brooks' date, leaving behind a car the FBI said was stolen in Las Vegas last month.

Acting on a tip, authorities spotted the Bronco near Lake Isabella, a two-hour drive north of Lancaster, with the girls inside the vehicle. After a mile-long chase, the Bronco veered off the road in the high desert and crashed, Kern County sheriff's Cmdr. Chris Davis.

"We were able to rescue the females. The suspect ran off," but refused to surrender and was shot by deputies, he said. Davis said he did not know whether the man returned fire.

Friends and relatives at the sheriff's command center here wept with joy and hugged when they learned the girls were safe.

"My little child Jackie, I can't wait to see her. I love her so much. If you're watching this honey, I love you, I can't wait for you to get home," said Jacqueline's father, Herb Marris.

Tamara's father, Sammie Brooks, told reporters in Lancaster: "I couldn't be a happier man right now and hope none of you has to go through something like this."

Arrangements were being made to reunite the girls with their parents.

"When I get to see her and hold her, then that's when it'll all be real," said Nadine Dyer, Jacqueline's mother.

After the kidnapping was reported, authorities swiftly issued an "Amber Alert," using radio and TV bulletins and electronic freeway signs to announce the abduction.

It was the first time California authorities have used the plan named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who was kidnapped in 1996 and later found dead in Texas. There are at least 12 statewide plans across the country.

The Lancaster case was the latest highly publicized abduction in California this year. One man is on trial for the murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who was taken in February from her home in a San Diego suburb, and another has been charged in the slaying of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, who was snatched outside her Orange County home last month while playing with a friend.

In the Runnion case, authorities caught the suspect within days after getting a description from the girl's playmate and promoting it aggressively with the media.

Brooks and Marris were kidnapped after they parked in separate vehicles beneath two giant water tanks on a barren, scrub brush-dotted hilltop known as Quartz Hill, a teenage hangout.

The gunman forced Brooks out of the Bronco belonging to her date, Eric Brown, 18. He then approached a pickup truck occupied by Marris and her date, Frank Melero Jr.

Brown said he was blindfolded, bound with duct tape and tied to a post as the man took Brooks. "He just kept telling her to stay down, keep her head down, don't look at him," he said.

"He told me he was going to kill me but he didn't want to," Brown said.

Left behind was a car that the FBI said was stolen July 18 from Roberta and James Young, 65, in Las Vegas. Authorities said Ratliff poured gasoline over the car, apparently trying to torch it, but was unsuccessful.

"We're very thankful those girls are all right," Roberta Young said in Las Vegas. "I really knew, truthfully, that that could have been me, could have been my husband."

Ratliff had a criminal record dating to the 1980s in Nebraska and California that included prison stretches for theft, burglary and possession of methamphetamines. He disappeared after his parole in July 2001.

"I never lost hope," Sammie Brooks said. "Tammie is a very, very strong-willed person. It's gonna take her awhile, but I think she'll recover from this. It runs in our genetic code."