Suspect in Kidnaping of Hayward Girl Cleared; Search to Continue

HAYWARD, Calif. — Police investigating the kidnaping of a 9-year-old girl a week ago eliminated a possible suspect Saturday and mounted a 100-member search team to comb the rugged parks and hills around Hayward.

Steven Shane, 21, passed a lie detector test Friday night in which he denied abducting the girl and said he had not been in the area for two years. Shane, a former neighbor of the missing girl, was arrested by San Francisco police Thursday on a parole violation charge.

“He’s been removed from our possible suspect list,” Hayward police officer Ray Alsdorf said. “We interviewed him yesterday. He waived his Miranda rights and denied involvement. We checked his alibis. He clearly passed a polygraph test.”

The elimination of the suspect left police and the FBI once again without solid leads in the hunt for blonde, blue-eyed Michaela Garecht, who was grabbed and thrown into a car by a young man with long blond hair Nov. 19.

The kidnaper lured the 4-feet, 8-inch tall, 75-pound girl to his car with her red scooter, which she had left parked outside a grocery store four blocks from her home. A store clerk and a girl who had ridden to the store with her saw the abduction and provided a description of the kidnaper.

Investigators lined up search teams to conduct an intensive ground search of the nearby 1,014-acre Garin Regional Park and the Niles Canyon area Sunday.