Detectives Shocked By What They Found | The Samantha Runnion Case | True Crime Documentary

“Reportedly kicking and screaming as the kidnapper grabbed her and threw her into his car. Neighbors are shocked. This is a small community, everybody knows each other, everybody trusts each other.”

“I’m absolutely shocked. I mean, personally, I never expected anything like this to happen in a community like this.”

Stanton, California. Stanton is a small community in Orange County, located roughly 26 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. One of Stanton’s residents was a little girl called Samantha Runnion. Samantha’s mom, Erin, worked as an analyst for British Petroleum in Long Beach, California. She had chosen to move to the Smoke Tree Condominium Complex in Stanton because it was a safe, family-friendly place. The neighborhood was close-knit—the kind of place where, as one resident explained, the garage doors are open and the people socialize; we use that as the patio. The complex was always a hub of activity with loads of children in the area. They were always out and about having fun in the central courtyard, and Samantha was often one of those out playing. When her mom came home from work, she would hide and then jump out to surprise her, her mom always reminding her that she was not to leave the courtyard. Erin said Samantha was kind, loving, everything a child should be; she was happy.

5-year-old Samantha and her friend, 6-year-old Sarah, were playing outside. Samantha was being watched by her grandmother while her mother and her mother’s boyfriend were at work. She and Sarah were sat happily playing a board game. As they played, a green car drove past them. It drove around the block and then back again. A man got out and asked the girls if they had seen a puppy; he was looking for his missing Chihuahua. Samantha asked how big it was when, without warning, the man grabbed her and dragged her to the car. Samantha kicked and screamed, desperately fighting to get away. She shouted to her best friend:

“Go get my grandma.”

As she was pulled into the vehicle, the door was slammed shut and the driver sped off. In an instant, life for so many would never be the same.

“Lured into a car by a stranger. One of the latest on the kidnapping in a live report. The child was reportedly kicking and screaming as the kidnapper grabbed her and threw her into his car. Right now, an intensive search is underway. Samantha and another little girl were playing here on a small street in the Smoke Tree Townhomes complex around 6:30 this evening. A man drove up to the girls and asked them to help him find his puppy. When Samantha bent over to ask him about the size of the dog, he grabbed her and drove off. Samantha’s grandmother was just around the corner, didn’t see anything. Neighbors are shocked. This is a small community, everybody knows each other, everybody trusts each other.”

“I don’t know what kind of sick person would do this. I mean, come up in here… what’s wrong with them?”

“I’m absolutely shocked. I mean, personally, I never expected anything like this to happen in a community like this. Everybody around here basically watches out for each other, and when something like this happens, it’s depressing and shocking at the same time.”

Samantha Runnion had been born on July 26th, 1996, to her father, Alejandro, and mother, Erin. Erin and Alejandro would later separate, and Alejandro moved to Sunderland, Massachusetts, but he remained very close to Samantha.

“I loved her so much,” he said, talking about the letters and packages he had sent to her as well as all the time she had visited him.

Samantha loved sunflowers, superheroes, princess costumes, and the Disney movie Hercules. Hercules was her favorite hero, and she kept a poster of him above her bed. She was an intelligent, advanced student who had just completed first grade, and now a massive search was underway to try and find her. From the moment Samantha was kidnapped, the investigation carried a sense of desperate urgency—not only because she had been abducted in broad daylight with her grandmother just inside the apartment and her friend standing beside her, but because every passing second mattered. A description of her was issued: she was wearing a white blouse, red checkered shorts, and pink sandals printed with green frogs.

“Please ask your captor to let you go. We love you. She is my s… little Linda, please let her go.”

Search teams and volunteers continued the massive manhunt that was already underway. Parents were suddenly terrified; this was a place they had always felt was safe. It was a small, friendly city, but now everything felt much darker and heavier. Despite being only 6 years old and having just witnessed something unimaginably terrifying, Samantha’s friend showed remarkable courage and clarity through her shock. She was able to give investigators a detailed description of both the man who took Samantha and the pale green car he was driving. She described him as having slicked-back black hair and a black mustache. Her account helped artists create a composite sketch that was quickly released to the public, and within hours, law enforcement officers were stopping hundreds of vehicles that even vaguely resembled the car she had seen. Her ability to remember what she did played an extraordinary role in pushing the investigation forward; it became one of the earliest and most important clues in the hunt for Samantha’s kidnapper. Tips poured in from across the region, and before long, the story had captured national attention. The fact that she had been taken in broad daylight shook the community to its core, leaving many parents questioning how safe their streets really were. People were holding out hope and praying with everything they had, but just 24 hours after she was abducted, that hope would be shattered.

A 911 call came in from a hang glider who had spotted something in a wooded area. The remote area near Lake Elsinore, close to the intersection of the Killen Truck Trail and the Ortega Highway, roughly 50 miles away from Samantha’s home. The caller was audibly traumatized, at times too shaken to speak clearly.

“Oh my God, we found a dead body. Please hurry, I’m so scared. It’s a little kid, it’s a baby.”

The caller said:

“I think it might be the little girl from the news. I’m sorry,” he said, adding that he had a 3-year-old of his own. “Please hurry, I’m scared and I want to get out of here.”

As his panic began to rise, the operator pleaded with him to stay as calm as he could. Investigators were on their way and would be there as quickly as possible. And despite the frantic searches, their worst fears were now realized: it was the body of Samantha Runnion. She had been sexually assaulted and suffered at least two blows to the head, causing her brain to swell. It was the opinion of the pathologist that she had died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation through a compression of the neck, with the blunt force trauma to the head contributing significantly to it also, though the pathologist could not determine what exactly had caused the compression to the neck. Her body had also been posed in a graphic, sexually suggestive manner—a detail that they said indicated the involvement of a sexual predator. FBI agent followed.

She transformed her grief into advocacy. In her daughter’s name, she founded the Joyful Child Foundation. The organization works on initiatives such as community child safety networks, our research into preventing repeat offenses by convicted abusers, and a range of other programs focused on child protection and abuse prevention. If you would like to know more about the incredible work of the Joyful Child Foundation, we have left a link to it in the description box. Erin said that she would never forgive what he did to her daughter, saying that the only person whose forgiveness should be sought was Samantha’s. She said that her way of forgiving him was recognizing what his upbringing had been like. She had sat and listened to what had happened to him as a child—stories of Alejandro and his siblings being tied up and beaten.

“It’s no excuse for what he did at all,” she said, “but it is a fact that he was a victim of horrible crimes himself as a child. We need to prevent crimes against all children. I tell his story for a lot of reasons. People tend to think about child murderers as monsters, but we need to understand what creates these monsters is this cycle of violence.”

One person that Erin also connected with was Jan Sepic, the mother of Katie Collman, whose case we covered a few weeks ago. Jan and her husband, Dave, had worked to push Katie’s Law, named after their daughter, at a federal level. This was a measure that provided funding for states to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for a violent felony. Previously, DNA testing was required only after a person had been convicted. Erin said that she was very moved to hear that Jan had been inspired by her victim’s advocacy work.

Samantha Runnion was only 5 years old, but she left behind a light bright enough to change lives far beyond the small courtyard where she had spent her days playing. She was clever, imaginative, and full of the kind of courage that only children seem to possess. And as we remember Samantha and the legacy built in her name, it’s also important not to forget the little girl that was with her that day. Despite the trauma she endured and the fear she must have felt, her bravery at such a young age played a crucial role in setting the investigation in motion. Her quick thinking and ability to recall vital details undoubtedly helped guide detectives towards the truth.

Aaron went to Sacramento, Washington, and anywhere else she needed to go to get laws changed.

“Part of the reason I think I have managed to continue this work for 20 years is because I know that most parents can’t. And as long as I can, I try to be a voice for Samantha and for every child who needs her.”

Just about any child protection legislation you can name—from keeping predators away from kids to sexual exploitation on the internet—Erin and her foundation have had a hand in getting them passed.

“I like to think that it wasn’t for nothing. A lot of children have been protected because of her.”

Erin has refused to let Samantha’s story end with tragedy. She changed that grief and anger into purpose. Through the Joyful Child Foundation, she has built something extraordinary: a nationwide movement. Because of this work, thousands of children have taken safety classes that teach them how to recognize danger and how to trust their instincts, as well as self-defense. Communities have been trained, law enforcement has partnered with volunteers. Every lesson taught, every child reached, and every life protected. Music is now part of Samantha’s legacy; her story continues in the strength her mother found and in every child who is safer today because of Samantha.