The location where a teenaged girl was kidnapped before she was found screaming for help in a South Berkeley neighborhood Wednesday morning remains unclear this afternoon but the case is now under investigation by San Francisco police, a police spokesman said.
Berkeley police first found the girl shortly after 5 a.m. near the corner of Ashby and Peidmont avenues about two blocks from the Claremont Hotel after neighbors found her outside screaming, police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats said.
But Berkeley police turned the case over to Oakland police after the girl reported she had been kidnapped and robbed in Oakland and then dropped off in Berkeley, Coats said.
Oakland police then determined Wednesday afternoon that the kidnapping happened in another jurisdiction and could be related to human sex trafficking, Oakland police Officer Johnna Watson said.
San Francisco police spokesman Officer Gordon Shyy confirmed today that San Francisco police are now investigating the case.
He said that after Oakland investigators interviewed the girl she changed her story and said that she had been kidnapped in San Francisco, robbed and dropped off in the East Bay.
While the department’s Special Victims Unit is investigating the case, he said it is being investigated as a kidnapping and robbery and not a sexual assault.
Shyy said that San Francisco police only received the case this morning and have not had a chance to interview the victim.
Scott Morris, Bay City News
