Camarillo Man Arrested on Kidnapping Charges

A Camarillo man suspected of kidnapping a mentally disabled 9-year-old girl and holding her for more than five hours was arrested early Sunday in the Antelope Valley community of Crystalaire.

David Pichon, 33, was taken into custody at a home in Crystalaire about 2 a.m. Sunday. He was being held at the Lancaster sheriff’s station on suspicion of kidnapping.

The girl, who authorities said has the mental capacity of a 4-year-old, had wandered away from her family’s Pearblossom home Saturday afternoon and was walking along Pearblossom Highway when a man offered her a ride.

A witness saw a girl getting into a white Cadillac in the parking lot of the Pearblossom Post Office and followed the vehicle, said Sgt. Russ Hill of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale Station.

“A woman saw the girl talking to the suspect through the car window and then she saw her getting into the car and she thought that was unusual,” Hill said. “She followed him for a while and then called in his license number.”

The woman’s call to sheriff’s deputies came shortly after the girl’s parents had notified the Palmdale station to report their daughter missing, Hill said.

“We put two and two together and realized that the cases were probably related,” Hill said.

Deputies said the girl was held for 5 1/2 hours, and was taken to several different locations, including a clothing store, a McDonald’s restaurant and to Crystalaire, a community which surrounds Crystalaire Country Club, near the town of Llano, deputies said.

A Littlerock resident found the girl wandering in the area of 95th Street East and Avenue T-8 about 9:30 p.m. Saturday and notified the Sheriff’s Department.

After being reunited with her parents, the girl was taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center to determine if she had been sexually molested, Hill said. Authorities had not yet received the results of the medical exam.

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The girl led investigators to Pichon through descriptions of the suspect’s car and the country club, Hill said.

“She gave some pretty good detailed material that was able to help the investigators a lot,” Hill said.

Pichon owns Custom Car Sounds, a car stereo store on East Main Street in Ventura where his wife, Sharon, also works.

Reached at their five-bedroom, three-bath Camarillo home Sunday, a visibly distraught Sharon Pichon’s only comment was: “Right now I need to focus on my four young children.”

Harold Nelson, who owns a printing business two doors away from Custom Car Sounds, said Sunday that he was surprised about the arrest. “I just find it hard to believe because he’s a nice guy.”