The district attorney has dropped charges against a man accused
of accosting two girls outside R.O. Hardin Elementary School on
March 15, according to a press release from the San Benito County
District Attorney’s Office and Hollister Police Department.
The district attorney has dropped charges against a man accused of accosting two girls outside R.O. Hardin Elementary School on March 15, according to a press release from the San Benito County District Attorney’s Office and Hollister Police Department.
Police arrested Cristobal Trevino, 34, after one of the students thought she had recognized the man March 30 when he passed her home on a bicycle, after which a relative reported his whereabouts. Police later arrested him on Union Road.
The press release from the two agencies notes that further investigation showed “additional exculpatory evidence” while there is “insufficient evidence to continue with the prosecution.”
She and another girl had reported a man tried to lure them into his car March 15. According to police, at about 2:50 p.m. that day a car approached two girls as they had been walking on Line Street south of the school. The driver yelled forcefully at one of the girls to “get in the car,” according to police. The girls kept walking, but the driver continued following them and repeatedly asked one of the girls to get into the car, despite being told they would call police, according to police.
The driver drove past them and turned onto Apricot Lane. As the girls neared that street, they saw him on foot and met a group of adults and children in the area of Nash Road and Line Street. The suspect’s car drove off from there onto Nash Road, according to police.
They described the car as tan and an older model station wagon, possibly an Oldsmobile. It had tinted windows and shiny wheels, while in poor condition. They described the suspect as a Hispanic male in his mid- to late-30s with dark, curly hair, a mustache and a full beard. Witnesses said he walked with a limp.
Trevino had been charged with suspicion of intent to commit a sexual offense with a minor and for annoying or molesting a minor. Trevino had been in custody at the San Benito County Jail with bail of $50,000.
Police are still investigating the incident and anyone with any information can call Officer Carlos Rodriguez at (831) 636-4330.
Body found was Canadian student, sheriff’s say
The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office has identified skeletal remains of a Canadian man who had lost contact with his family four years before authorities discovered the bones in March.
The man, identified as Robert G. Stewart from Calgary in Alberta, Canada, was reported missing in March 2009. His last contact with family members came three years earlier in 2006, when he was age 29.
The sheriff’s office declined to confirm whether there are suspicions of foul play.
The remains were found by two tourists from Northern California on March 24 – almost a year to the day after being reported missing – near Airline Highway on private property 38 miles south of Hollister. The tourists found nearly 50 bones, including a femur, a jawbone with several teeth still attached and some animal fragments.
The tourists, who were in the area on a camping trip, found the bones after they had stopped on a roadside to eat lunch and take photos, authorities said.
With the help of an archeologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the sheriff’s office confirmed some bones were human, sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Lamonica said. The bones still are in Santa Cruz to potentially determine a cause of death.
Investigators also found a backpack near the remains with a student loan document from the University of Calgary with Stewart’s name on it and a faded receipt from Marshalls clothing store dated August 2006, Detective Ed Nino said.
Using the information, the sheriff’s office got in contact with the Calgary authorities to search for any missing person’s report. Calgary police confirmed Stewart was identified as missing and helped the sheriff’s office get in contact with the family.
Stewart’s family ran a credit-card search and discovered his last purchase was a round-trip ticket to San Francisco in August 2006, Nino said. The family – from Vancouver in British Columbia – asked the airline and discovered the return ticket was never used.
The sheriff’s office, after reaching the family and using dental records received from a Calgary dentist, identified the remains with help from a Monterey County odontologist – who handles dental evidence – Lamonica said.
Neither authorities nor family members knew why Stewart had been in San Benito County, Lamonica said.
The sheriff’s office is still examining the area for remains, sending search-and-rescue teams daily, the sergeant said. Authorities would not say the specific location where the remains were found to prevent having people going in the area.
Investigators are asking for anyone with more information to call the sheriff’s office at (831) 636-4080.
