Murder of Samantha Runnion


Samantha Bree Runnion was a five-year-old girl abducted from outside her home in Stanton, California, and murdered.

Kidnapping and murder

On July 15, 2002, Runnion was playing with a friend in her family's front yard when a man approached them asking for help in finding a lost dog. After a short conversation he grabbed Samantha, forced her into his car, and drove away. A day later, her nude body was found fifty miles south in Cleveland National Forest. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Police said the killer was "extremely sloppy" and had left behind "mountains of physical evidence connecting him to the crime".
Alejandro Avila, of Lake Elsinore, California, was arrested three days after the abduction. His DNA was found on Samantha's body, and her DNA was found in his car. Avila had previously visited his girlfriend in the condominium complex where Samantha lived, and had been previously acquitted of molesting his girlfriend's daughter and niece.
Police found child pornography on Avila's laptop computer, and he had booked a motel room on the day of the murder, where it was believed that Samantha was killed. Avila's public defender argued during the trial that it was impossible for him to have kidnapped the girl, abused, murdered, and then dumped her body 50 miles away in the course of one day as the prosecution believed.
On May 16, 2005, a jury returned a verdict of death. He is incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison on death row.