VALLEJO, California (AP) -- After spending two nights shackled to the front seat of a kidnapper's car, 8-year-old Midsi Sanchez finally saw her chance to make a dash for freedom and took it -- a move that police say may have saved her life.

A Sad End to Xiana Story

Jailed man's attorney says police are focusing on his client

Stacy Finz,Patrick Hoge,Tyche Hendricks, Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writers

Sunday, February 4, 2001

Authorities disclosed yesterday that a skull found in the Los Gatos hills was that of 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild, bringing a tragic end to a long and wrenching 14-month search for the Vallejo girl.

Hours later, the attorney for Curtis Dean Anderson, who was being held in Solano County in the abduction of another young girl, revealed that police have stepped up their probe of his client in connection with the Xiana case.

Anderson was abruptly transferred from lockup in Fairfield to Santa Clara County last night and is likely to face charges in the missing Vallejo girl's death, according to defense attorney Carl Spieckerman. But as of late last night, Solano County jail officials said they still had custody of Anderson.

In what seemed to be a state of confusion, Santa Clara County authorities confirmed that they were planning to receive and book Anderson after midnight and then later said plans had changed.

"They're going to book him," Spieckerman said. "And I believe he's going to be charged with something in connection with this case."

Earlier, however, Santa Clara County sheriff's officials adamantly said there was no evidence to link Anderson to Xiana's death. Last night they would not confirm whether Anderson was being moved or charged.

Xiana's remains -- a portion of her skull and two pieces of her jaw -- were discovered Jan. 19 by a construction worker driving up a rural Santa Clara County road about 60 miles from Xiana's Vallejo home.

They were positively identified through both dental records and DNA testing on Friday, according to Dr. Gregory Schmunk, Santa Clara County's medical examiner.

Xiana vanished Dec. 9, 1999, while on her way to school in downtown Vallejo.

Since then, police have focused on several suspects, including the 39-year- old Anderson.

He was arrested last summer and charged with kidnapping and molesting an 8- year-old Vallejo girl, who after two days of being held captive in an industrial part of Santa Clara managed to break away and run for help. Since his arrest, Anderson has reportedly told three people, including Xiana's great- aunt, that he was involved in the 7-year-old's disappearance.

Schmunk said that Xiana's death was a homicide, but wouldn't say how she was killed.

He said a forensic dentist compared the teeth in the skull to dental X-rays of Xiana from within a year before her disappearance and found that they matched.

"There is no question . . . that the skull belongs to Xiana," Schmunk said.

Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini said, "Now we know we have a serious crime. This is more than just a missing girl."

Xiana's mother, Antoinette Robinson, and her great-aunt, Stephanie Kahalekulu, who had fought off despair for so long, learned the news from police earlier in the day, according to Vallejo police spokeswoman Lt. Joann West. "They were both distraught. They were very emotionally upset by it," said West.

"I think Stephanie recognized this was a possibility, especially when the remains were found (in January). So she was somewhat prepared for this, but she was still hoping it would not be (Xiana). Even yesterday she was talking about an expanded, nationwide search."

DEVOTED TO SEARCH

Kahalekulu, who raised Xiana for most of her seven years, left her home in Colorado and came to the Bay Area where she had doggedly pursued every possible clue, helping open four successive volunteer centers, leading regular community search parties and organizing fund-raisers.

Her hopes were cruelly lifted in recent weeks by the reported words of Anderson, who she said told her that he took Xiana, gave her to someone else and that she was still alive.

The Solano County district attorney said two news reporters were told similar stories by Anderson and reported it to police about four months ago.

FEW DETAILS RELEASED

Officials would not say how, when or where Xiana had died, nor even whether they knew the answers to those questions. They declined to comment on how long the skull might have been on the remote road, how it got there or whether any other evidence was found at the site.

Neither Robinson nor Kahalekulu made any public appearances yesterday.

Dan Healy, Robinson's attorney, said his client was notified of the identification at about 11 a.m. and "cried a lot" afterward.

"She's in seclusion right now. She's not saying much of anything. It's pretty hard, even though obviously she's been aware of the possibility for a long time," Healy said. "Everybody's talking about closure, and I think that's easier said than done."

Robinson's relationship with Kahalekulu had become strained by accounts from neighbors of Xiana living in cramped conditions with Xiana's mother and her boyfriend, Robert Turnbough. But yesterday they mourned together, according to friends.

CONFLICTING STORIES

Turnbough told police he had left the girl at a bus stop the morning of Dec. 9, but later changed his story to say she walked alone to catch the bus.

"From the very day Xiana disappeared, we got conflicting stories from her mother and her mother's boyfriend," Nichelini said. "We still have those conflicting stories and we have to sort it out."

Vallejo police never labeled Turnbough a suspect, only saying he had been under "a cloud of suspicion" because of his contradictory tales.

Last year, a federal grand jury questioned both Turnbough and Robinson six times, but he was never indicted. Police also visited a landfill in Washington state where Vallejo sends trash, but nothing was found.

Jim McEntee, Turnbough's lawyer, declined to comment on the effect the discovery would have on his client's case, saying simply, "We're all saddened by this."

Healy said the same, but said that down the road, if another suspect is implicated in the case, he would be interested in reviewing information about the police investigation as it is revealed in court.

"There's clearly going to have to be a reckoning, and today is not the day for that. Having said that . . . they focused on (Robinson and Turnbough) obviously to the detriment of the investigation."

Asked yesterday whether Anderson was considered a suspect, Santa Clara County sheriff's Capt. Brian Beck said, "There is no evidence of links to Anderson at this point."

Carl Spieckerman, Anderson's attorney, said he tried to visit his client in the Solano County Jail at about 2:20 p.m. yesterday, and was told to wait. At about 4 p.m., he said, a jail official told him Anderson had been removed under court order.

ATTORNEY BAFFLED

"It's like some damn inquisition; they spirited him off," Spieckerman said. "It's extremely strange. I've been doing this 26 years and have never seen anyone spirited off in the middle of the afternoon."

Santa Clara County sheriff's Lt. John Hirokawa would not comment on Anderson's location, whether investigators have spoken to him, or whether he has been taken to the site where the skull was found.

"All we're saying is (the investigation) is proceeding," he said. Hirokawa said that regardless of Anderson's comments to the press, Santa Clara investigators do not know who the suspects are in the homicide case.

"We have no physical evidence that will link him at this time to the Xiana Fairchild disappearance," Hirokawa said.

"His comments and revelations to the press are not evidence," he said. "His comments to the press are not under penalty of perjury. He could tell you 'I'm the Zodiac killer' . . . but those claims are just that: They are comments to the press, which hold no validity in court."

DISCOVERY OF SKULL

Xiana's bones were found on Soda Springs Road, about 20 miles from Anderson's trailer park home.

The skull was found by a construction worker who stopped his truck to move what he thought was a rock from the middle of the narrow, paved road in unincorporated Los Gatos, said Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.

When the man discovered it was actually part of a skull, he reported it to the sheriff's department and it was turned over to the medical examiner. The man's identity has not been released.

The past two weeks have been spent trying to identify the skull, which was originally believed to come from a 5- or 6-year-old child.

Benny Del Re, director of the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory, said his staff used tooth pulp from one of the skull's molars to work up a genetic profile of the victim.

"We confirmed it matched the (DNA) profile provided to us by the FBI of Xiana based on (tissue) samples from her toothbrush," he said. "There's 100 percent certainty it's identical."

MOURNING IN VALLEJO

In Vallejo yesterday, thousands of residents mourned the news that many had considered but no one had wished for.

Deena May never met Xiana Fairchild, the girl she's been searching for over the past 13 months. Yesterday she found out she never will. "I just kept hoping to be able to meet her and watch her grow up," said May, 24.

"This affects a lot of people,' said Vincent Wortham, a 40-year-old Vallejo search volunteer. "There's a lot of sadness and anger. Emotions are high today. "

Volunteers erected a memorial shrine to Xiana, including a teddy bear, outside their search center, which was supposed to reopen in two weeks after moving locations.

Xiana's family members would not speak to the media yesterday.

Back at the apartment where Xiana lived on Georgia Street in downtown Vallejo, residents were devastated.

"I'm sorry to hear about it. She was a very sweet little girl. She used to play right here in the hallway," said Mickey Davenport, the apartment manager.

Even neighbors who had not known Xiana said they had been holding out hope for her safe return.

"I really believed she was still alive," said Gloria Lee, a Vallejo postal worker. "I had hoped she was sold for drug money, but I didn't think she was killed."

Lee said yesterday's news was even more chilling for her as a mother of two young daughters.

This case has heightened her awareness, she said. "It's very scary, very frightening. You don't have the freedom to have a normal life with your children" she said. "You always have to know exactly where they are."

Some Vallejo residents felt yesterday's news afforded Xiana's family some measure of closure, despite the grim ending.

"You want to say that maybe she's still out there, but if the skull's hers, it brings some closure to the whole thing," said Mike Harris, 55, a retired pipe fitter.

Harris' son, Richard, 31, lives in Xiana's old apartment, which her mother vacated about six months ago.

He said the case is still far from closed. The identification of Xiana's skull still leaves many questions unanswered, he said.

"I think people want to know. They still want to get to the bottom of this, " said Richard Harris, who has an 8-year-old son. "It's like an open wound."

Yesterday, mourners placed flowers, pictures and purple and yellow candles outside the search center. "Purple was Xiana's favorite color," said Wortham, "and yellow was our hope that she would come home alive."

Charlie Clute, a 71-year-old search team leader, said he hoped the search center would remain open and be used to help find other missing children. "Hopefully we can use it as a missing children's center for Vallejo, because we don't have one," he said.

About 15 volunteers were notified yesterday about the skull's identification. At one time there were more than 400 volunteers involved in the search for Xiana.

Many, like May, became so involved that they felt like Xiana had become part of their family. May's 2-year-old daughter learned to recognize Xiana's face on television. "She would say 'Nana' because she can't say Xiana, but she knew who Xiana was and I don't know what to do now, I don't know how to tell her."

THE SEARCH FOR XIANA FAIRCHILD

DEC. 9, 1999: Xiana Fairchild, 7, is reported missing by her mother, Antoinette Robinson, when she fails to return home from Mare Island Elementary School. They share the apartment with Robert Turnbough, an ex-felon, who claims he dropped Xiana off at the school bus stop that morning

DEC. 9-12: Volunteers and law enforcement search the city and waterfront. Kim Swartz opens up a volunteer center to aid in the search.

DEC. 16: Turnbough tells reporters he isn't sure whether he drove Xiana to the bus stop the morning of Dec. 9.

DEC. 16: Court records reveal that Turnbough was convicted of scalding an infant in 1994.

DEC. 18: Xiana's case appears as a segment on "America's Most Wanted."

DEC. 19: Police and FBI agents search marshlands between Benicia and Cordelia, an area close to Vallejo where a body could have been disposed of.

DEC. 27: Police search the home of Turnbough's parents, looking for a diary and pornography.

LAST WEEK OF DECEMBER: Search continues. Bake sales and raffles are held to raise money for search efforts.

DEC. 31: The search for Xiana has already cost the city of Vallejo more than $144,000.

JAN. 1-2, 2000: A police search of the apartment Xiana shared with Robinson and Turnbough turns up the clothes Xiana was said to be wearing when she left home the morning of Dec. 9.

JAN. 3: Turnbough declares his innocence at a press conference, though he admits he failed a lie detector test.

JAN. 6: Searchers renew efforts to find Xiana, after conflicting tales begin to unravel.

JAN. 6-15: Vallejo police conduct a search of the Roosevelt Regional Landfill that is perched along the border of Washington and Oregon.

JAN. 9: Marc Klaas and Kim Swartz lead 800 volunteers on another search effort, recovering items, none of which can be identified by family as belonging to Xiana.

JAN. 9: Grand jury issues subpoenas to neighbors, relatives and acquaintances of Xiana.

JAN. 26: $75,000 reward offered.

JAN. 29: Grand jury investigation focuses on Turnbough. No charges result.

FEB. 7: The Leeza Gibbons show broadcasts a television program about the missing Xiana.

APRIL 1: Klaas leaves Xiana Fairchild Volunteer Center, complaining of disagreement among directors.

JULY 9: Swartz and Stephanie Kahalekulu, Xiana's great-aunt, argue over control of the money for Xiana's search.

AUG. 10: Solution to Xiana's disappearance is near, police say, refocusing their investigation on Turnbough and a group of his friends, including William Perkins Jr., who spent the night of Dec. 8 at the Vallejo apartment of Xiana Fairchild.

AUG. 10: 8-year-old girl of Vallejo disappears on her way home from school. Search ensues.

AUG. 16: Perkins is arrested on charges of spousal abuse and sex charges involving minors.

AUG. 12: Girl escapes her kidnapper, Curtis Dean Anderson, who is later arrested. Anderson is found to have a long criminal history.

AUG. 14: Police investigations reveal that Anderson visited the Vallejo apartment where Xiana lived shortly before her disappearance.

JAN. 19, 2001: Small skull found in Los Gatos hills.

JAN. 27: While waiting for DNA results on skull, Kahalekulu discloses that Anderson has admitted to her that he snatched Xiana and that she is still alive.

Associated Press