On December 16, 1989, Leticia was playing with neighborhood children in the front yard of her family's Oceanside, California, apartment. Her mother left her alone for ten minutes to use the complex's laundry room, and when she returned, Leticia was gone.
Detectives investigated an unidentified man driving a two-tone blue Cadillac who offered children $50 to get into his car just blocks from Leticia's home on the evening she vanished. The man was never identified, and police could not confirm if he was connected to her disappearance.
Following a televised photograph of Leticia, witnesses reported seeing a girl matching her description traveling with a white man and woman in a maroon Buick Skylark. These tips led authorities to track a trail of sightings across the southern United States from California to Florida.
On March 9, 1991, a ranch caretaker discovered a human skull in a canyon off Highway S16 near the Pala Indian Reservation, about 23 to 26 miles from Leticia's home. Investigators recovered dozens of pieces of evidence at the scene, including the red shorts Leticia wore the day she disappeared.
Once the cross-country abduction theory was disproved, investigators focused on a local landscaper who lived down the street from the Hernandez family. The suspect, a married father of three, faced a grand jury probe but was never publicly named or charged.