Michaela Garecht: Child kidnapped from Hayward in 1988

Missing California Michaela Garecht

Michaela was kidnapped on November 19, 1988, at approximately 10:15 a.m., in Hayward, California (San Francisco Bay Area). The location was at the corner of Mission Boulevard and Lafayette. At that time it was called Rainbow Market. Today it is Mexico Super.

According to Sharon Nemeth Murch, the mother of missing Michaela Garecht on her blog, “Dear Micaela”

“November 19, 1988
It was a sunny Saturday morning, the first day of Thanksgiving vacation, when Michaela and her best friend, Trina, asked if they could go to the neighborhood market to get some candy and sodas. The market was only two blocks away, but Michaela had only been there a few times, and then only in the company of the teenage girls who lived next door. I didn’t want to let her go, and at first I told her no. But she begged and begged, and so I gave in, and let her go. I stood at the door and watched as the girls picked up their scooters from the driveway to leave. Michaela turned to me. “I love you, mom,” she said. “I love you, too, Michaela,” I told her. Those were our last words to each other. I stood and watched as the girls glided down the driveway and to the end of the block, until they turned out of sight. I went back inside and started washing the breakfast dishes.

Michaela hadn’t been gone for long, not long enough for me to worry about her, when I heard shouting out in the street, where Michaela’s dad was working on the car in the driveway. A minute later he stuck his head in the kitchen doorway. “Somebody snatched Michaela up at the market,” he said breathlessly. “You call 911. I’m going up there.” I stood there with my mouth open, unable to comprehend the horror of what I was hearing. Somebody “snatched” Michaela up at the market? What did that even mean? I picked up the phone and dialed 911. They knew my name without my telling them. They asked some questions, and told me to wait at my house for the officer.”

After coming out of the store the girls walked down the street, then remembered they forgot their

Loren Herzog, one of the Speed Freak Killers.
He committed suicide in 2012

The composite drawing

scooters and turned around to get them. Michaela bent down to pick the scooter up, and that is when a man jumped out of a parked car and grabbed Michaela from behind and put her in the car. Michaela’s friend was the only witness and she ran back into the store to get help.

The man was described as white and in his 20s, with pockmarks on his face. He had shoulder length, dirty blonde hair. Around 6 feet tall and thin. The witness described him as having fox-like eyes. He was driving a large older model American car. Possibly a four-door, that was beige or tan gold with possible cement splatters on the sides and lights into the rear bumper. The bumper had dents and the car was old and run-down, and could have been in a couple of accidents. It left heading south on Mission Blvd. towards Union City.

In July 2011 Hayward police announced
that Garrido has not been eliminated
as a suspect and is still a person
of interest in the case of Michaela Garecht.^{[72]

Hayward has been sentenced to 431 years for the kidnapping

of Jaycee Dugard}