Stanton : Girl Left in Car Found Wandering, Assaulted

A 4-year-old girl left unattended and asleep in the back seat of a car parked at a Stanton bar was found wandering and dazed four hours later in Buena Park, a police spokesman said Monday.

The girl also had been sexually assaulted, Stanton Police Sgt. Steve Kelch said.

The toddler’s mother, who was not identified, told investigators that a friend called her from the Corner Lounge Bar at 8550 Chapman Ave. and asked her for a ride. The woman went to the bar to retrieve her friend at 11 p.m. Sunday.

Kelch said the woman left the child asleep and bundled in a blanket in the back seat of the car. But she left the doors unlocked while she was in the bar and told police that she had been in the lounge for only a few minutes.

When the woman returned to her car, she found her daughter missing. Kelch said she told police her daughter was probably abducted because she “would never wander away alone.”

Stanton police, with the help of reserve officers and Explorer scouts from Stanton and Garden Grove, launched a door-to-door search of the neighborhood.

A passer-by finally found the toddler wandering around near the intersection of La Palma and Valley View avenues at about 3 a.m., Kelch said.

Lt. Jay Mendez, who is heading the investigation, said the child was examined and treated at the UCI Medical Center and later released. He said doctors determined that she was “definitely” assaulted sexually.