Boy abducted in Calif. safe in Mexico; father dead

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- A desperate five-day search for a 9-year-old boy allegedly abducted by his father in Southern California ended in Mexico, where the man died in a car crash and the boy was found safe in a temple, authorities said Monday.

Ryan Ramos was found alone Sunday in a Mormon temple in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and arrived in Orange County early Monday, where he was reunited with his family, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.

He had been missing since Wednesday, when his father, Lonnie Ramos, 46, allegedly shot his estranged wife in the face during a custody exchange and took off with their child, authorities said.

Gynnae Ramos, the boy's mother, was in good condition Monday at Mission Hospital, where she was recovering from gunshot wounds to the chest, stomach and right eye, Amormino said. Her son was taken to her bedside, he said.

Amormino said that hours after Ramos dropped his son off at the temple, he was killed in a car accident in Ciudad Juarez. Suicide has not been ruled out, Amormino said.

Lonnie Ramos called his father in Washington, D.C., around 11 a.m. Sunday to say that he was in Ciudad Juarez with Ryan and that Ryan had been left at the temple. Lonnie Ramos converted to Mormonism about eight months ago, Amormino said.

The grandfather contacted Orange County detectives. Several hours later, Mexican State Police contacted U.S. officials with word that an American tourist who strongly resembled Ramos had been critically injured in a car accident, Amormino said.

Around 2 a.m. Monday, Mexican authorities confirmed that the man was Ramos and that he had died, Amormino said.

Amormino said when Ryan Ramos was found, he wasn't aware that his mother had been shot or that his father was dead.

"He believed he was on an outing with his father," Amormino said, adding that detectives now believe Lonnie Ramos planned the shooting.

The break in the case came over the holiday weekend when a tipster reported seeing the father and son crossing the Mexican border by foot near Andrade, about 160 miles east of San Diego.

Gynnae Ramos filed for divorce in 2003 and had been locked in a divorce and custody battle with Lonnie Ramos, court records show.

She brought a friend to the meeting Wednesday to act as a witness because she felt there might be trouble, Amormino said. Instead of pulling into the driveway, she passed the house once, made a U-turn and was shot as she approached from the other side, he said.