Plenty of Leads, No Suspects in Kidnapping Case

SHERMAN OAKS —  Detectives investigating the unusual kidnapping of a 7-year-old Sherman Oaks boy have “a whole bunch of leads,” Los Angeles police said Monday, but declined to reveal details.

“We’re still in the early, early stages,” said Capt. William Gartland, who oversees the LAPD’s robbery-homicide division, which is handling the case. “Most important for us, of course, was the safe return of the child.”

Matthew Simms, whose family owns the Mimi’s Cafes chain of more than 20 restaurants, was taken from his home Friday by two men, one wielding a gun, but was then released unharmed the next day, police said. He had apparently been rescued by a woman who lives with the kidnappers, sources said.

Dozens of detectives have been working around the clock to identify possible suspects and a motive, said police spokesman Lt. Chuck Helm on Monday afternoon. “There’s been no break in the case,” he said, and no suspects are known.

“These are not the kinds of cases we want to let go unsolved,” Helm said. “We want solutions.”

The Simms family remained in seclusion Monday, but sources said the reunion at Northridge Hospital Medical Center on Saturday morning was a jubilant affair.

“[Matthew] was articulate, he was bright, and he was in good shape and good condition,” said a source who was present at the hospital. “He said he wanted to go home, like any little boy would do.”

Simms was kidnapped at 12:30 p.m. Friday after two masked men burst into the boy’s home in the 4300 block of Sutton Place and forced his mother and a maid to the floor at gunpoint, police said. A silent alarm triggered from inside the house alerted officers at the Van Nuys station, but the kidnappers eluded swarms of police who fanned out across the neighborhood and in helicopters.

In a highly unusual sequence of events, police asked that television, radio and newspapers report only that a home-invasion robbery had occurred.

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A threatening phone call to the Simms’ home an hour after the men left with Matthew led police to believe that the kidnappers did not want the crime reported and that the boy’s life could be in danger if it were.

The media complied, holding off on reporting the kidnapping until the boy turned up, safe, the next day.

The boy was dropped off at the Northridge hospital by a woman who lived with the kidnappers, sources said. She apparently waited until the kidnappers were asleep and then spirited him away, they said.

Police said Matthew’s parents, Scott and Rochelle Simms, were taken to the hospital, where they hugged and kissed their son. Shortly thereafter, the family went into hiding.

A family friend said the Simms family did not want to speak to the media.

The friend said, however, that the family is grateful that the boy was returned and unharmed.

“Matthew had a guardian angel,” the friend said.

In their telephone call to the family, the kidnappers did not ask for ransom but made demands and threatened to kill the boy if they were unmet, police said. Police did not reveal the demands or other details of that call.

The kidnappers, who fled in a red car, were described as Latinos with dark hair and brown eyes, one appearing to be in his 20s, the other in his late 30s or early 40s.