Murder of Samantha Runnion

On July 15, 2002, five-year-old Samantha Bree Runnion was playing a board game with a friend in the front yard of her home in Stanton, California, when a man approached and asked for help finding his lost dog. After a brief conversation, the man grabbed Samantha, forced her into his car, and drove away. A day later, her body was found approximately 50 miles south of her home in Cleveland National Forest.

An autopsy determined that Runnion had been sexually assaulted and killed; the cause of death was asphyxiation, with significant head injuries also found. The pathologist estimated she died between the evening of July 15 and the early hours of July 16, 2002. Police described the killer as "extremely sloppy," stating he had left behind "mountains of physical evidence" connecting him to the crime.

Alejandro Avila of Lake Elsinore, California, was arrested three days after the abduction. Investigators found his DNA on Runnion's body and her DNA in his car. Avila had previously visited a girlfriend who lived in the same condominium complex as Samantha, and he had been acquitted in an earlier case of molesting his then-girlfriend's daughter and niece. Police also found child sexual abuse material on Avila's laptop computer. He had booked a motel room on the day of the murder, which investigators believed was where Runnion was killed. During the trial, Avila's public defender argued that he could not have kidnapped, abused, murdered, and disposed of the girl's body 50 miles away all within the timeframe the prosecution described.

On May 16, 2005, a jury found Avila guilty, and he was sentenced to death. He is incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison on death row. He has filed multiple appeals since the verdict, none of which have succeeded.

Samantha's mother, Erin Runnion, subsequently founded The Joyful Child Foundation, an organization with a stated mission of preventing crimes against children through educational and community programs.