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Local teenager vanishes in Georgia theme park

The New Port Richey girl's grandmother says she disappeared into the crowd at Wild Adventures.

By EMILY VASQUEZ
Published July 6, 2005

Deputies in Georgia are investigating the disappearance of a 17-year-old New Port Richey girl from a Georgia theme park Saturday night.

Leah Deltedesco, who was spending the summer at her grandmother's home in Douglas, Ga., had gone with her grandmother and siblings to Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Ga. Leah planned to attend a Simple Plan concert, part of the park's July 4th weekend celebration.

Deltedesco's grandmother, Linda Murillo, 62, said she dropped Deltedesco off ahead of the family at the entrance to the park while she parked the car.

Minutes later, when Murillo arrived at the concert area to meet Deltedesco, she couldn't find her.

"I walked all over the concert, but I couldn't see her," Murillo said Tuesday. "I didn't see Leah."

As most parkgoers watched the sky illuminated with fireworks, Murillo focused on the faces in the crowd, hoping to spot her granddaughter's.

Later when the crowds began to file out of the park, Murillo alerted park officials. A standard "clean sweep" of the park was conducted with staff members checking all the buildings and restrooms. They did a second sweep. Then a law enforcement officer questioned the band. Deltedesco wasn't with them, Murillo said.

Murillo said she stayed at the park until around 5 a.m. reviewing surveillance videos from the entrances and exits. She said she spotted an image of Deltedesco entering the park around 7:30 p.m. captured on surveillance video, but she didn't see her leaving.

Lt. Wanda Edwards of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the disappearance, said if Deltedesco exited the park with a crowd, it would be difficult to spot her on surveillance videos.

"We don't have anybody obviously coming out as if in a struggle," Edwards said, adding that between 30,000 and 40,000 people entered and exited the park that day. Wild Adventures is comparable in size to a Busch Gardens or Six Flags.

Deltedesco and her sister spent most school breaks with their grandmother in Georgia, Murillo said, but this summer Deltedesco really wanted to stay in Florida.

"She just didn't want to leave her friends," Murillo said. "We had discussed the idea of her coming up here to go to school. She didn't like the idea."

For about seven months, Deltedesco had been dating a 21-year-old New Port Richey man. Both Denett Deltedesco and Murillo had become uncomfortable with the relationship, Murillo said.

"Her grades were dropping," Murillo said. "She had skipped some school."

When Denett Deltedesco received news in Florida of the disappearance, she said she thought maybe her daughter, "just left and ran away." But, she said, Leah Deltedesco hasn't contacted anyone in Florida, not even her boyfriend or best friend. Denett Deltedesco went to Georgia on Tuesday to help search for her daughter.

"She really pretty much just vanished."

Emily Vasquez can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6232 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. Her e-mail address is evasquez@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 6, 2005, 00:50:11]