Body of Missing Oak View Girl Found

OJAI —  An exhaustive weeklong search for a 14-year-old Oak View girl ended Saturday when a suspect in Kali Manley’s death led authorities to her body, dumped in a large drainage pipe in Ventura County’s back country.

The body of the Nordhoff High School freshman was found about 2 p.m. in the pipe, which cut through a snow-patched ravine under California 33, about 30 miles north of Ojai, authorities said.

The discovery ended the hopes of hundreds of Ojai and Oak View residents who had trudged through rugged canyons across the Ojai Valley for the past week--including Christmas Day--to help find the teen.

As news confirming the girl’s death spread, searchers gathered around Manley’s uncle, Jim, to offer hugs and say prayers.

Fighting back tears, Jim Manley thanked the volunteers gathered at the sheriff’s command post at the high school.

“On behalf of my brother and the Manley family, who are devastated at this time with this news, we would like to thank the hundreds of volunteers in this marvelous community of Ojai and Oak View who have been searching for our beloved Kali, the most wonderful girl,” Manley said.

An attorney for David Alvarez, 22, who was taken into custody Tuesday on unrelated charges, said his client is a suspect in the case.

Attorney Louis Chuck Samonsky acknowledged as early as Tuesday that his client was immediately connected to the girl’s disappearance. Samonsky said Alvarez had wanted to tell authorities where the body could be found, but that he instructed his client to remain silent.

Samonsky said he had been trying for several days to get assurances from Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury that, in exchange for Alvarez’s help locating Manley’s body, his office would not seek the death penalty. Prosecutors refused, he said.

“The bottom line is the D.A.’s office has been unwilling to negotiate anything,” Samonsky said. “My client has wanted to do this from the very beginning.”

On Saturday, under pressure from Alvarez and his family, Samonsky relented.

Standing outside the County Government Center on Saturday morning, Samonsky met Bradbury, who had made arrangements for Alvarez to lead authorities to Manley’s body, Samonsky said.

“This has been extremely gut-wrenching for me. I’m heartbroken on behalf of the [Manley] family,” Samonsky said. “There was pressure on me from [prosecutors], from my client, and from my client’s family to go ahead and locate this little girl.”

The drainage pipe in which Manley’s body was found is at the bottom of a steep embankment. Authorities said the body had not been covered or buried. The remote locale is five miles north of where search crews had been earlier on Saturday.

About 4:30 p.m. medical examiners and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team pulled the body onto a stretcher, wrapped it in a blue tarp and carried it up the 40-foot embankment.

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It’s not clear yet how Manley died or what role Alvarez, an Ojai resident who remains in custody on the unrelated charges, may have played in the teen’s death.

Sgt. Chuck Buttell, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said Alvarez was initially arrested on suspicion of brandishing a firearm and making a terrorist threat.

Buttell had no further information on those charges and would not comment on Alvarez’s alleged connection to Manley’s disappearance or death. Bradbury also declined comment Saturday.

Samonsky said he did not know whether his client had been booked in connection with Manley’s slaying. He said authorities did not need to do so immediately since Alvarez remained in custody on $250,000 bail on the unrelated charges.

Manley, who wore long blond hair and would have turned 15 this Tuesday, was last seen at the Circle K convenience store on California 33, across from Woodland Avenue. Her father, Charles Manley, said his daughter last spoke to him on the phone about 5 p.m. to say she would be spending the night at a friend’s house.

Later at the Circle K, Manley--who was wearing a black Adidas sweat shirt and a pink tank top--was seen climbing into a green truck with two males. By Sunday night, no one had heard from Manley, and her parents called the authorities.

From the beginning, the girl’s parents suspected the worst, noting that their daughter, described by friends as a shy, sweet girl, had never run away from home.

For days rescuers had tried to stay optimistic they would find Manley alive. But Search and Rescue team member Earl Matthews, who helped scour the Ojai area for four days, said hopes diminished with each passing day.

“Obviously, we’re not happy at the outcome,” Matthews said. “But even though we didn’t bring her back alive, we brought some closure to the family. . . . It’s the ones you never find that’s the toughest.”

The Sheriff’s Department said even up until Saturday they were treating this as a missing-person case, not a homicide. About 75 searchers had showed up by Saturday afternoon to continue their work.

Buttell said that although the case had a tragic ending, the family was touched by all those who came out to support them.

“It was overwhelming to see people they didn’t even know come out and search for their little girl,” Buttell said.

Turning to those who gathered at the Nordhoff High command post as it was being dismantled Saturday evening, Buttell said, “You should all be proud of yourselves because we are very proud of you.”

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The search for Manley has galvanized the small town that turned out hundreds of volunteers for the effort.

“The outpouring of all the volunteers was an indication of the community coming together,” Ojai Mayor Steve Olsen said. “It’s kind of put a damper on our Christmas here in Ojai that there was such a negative thing that happened. I think our community pulls together when somebody’s in need.”

The discovery of Manley’s body comes less than a month after the body of Simi Valley teenager Melinda Brown was found in the Hungry Valley area in the Los Padres National Forest. Authorities said the 18-year-old Brown died of a single gunshot wound to the torso. The investigation in that case continues.

The Manley family asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Ojai substation of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

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Times staff writer Tracy Wilson and Times Community News reporter Jennifer Hamm contributed to this story.