Police kill only person who may know whereabouts of missing Vallejo teen

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (KGO) -- Police in Southern California have killed the only person who may know the location of a missing 15-year-old girl from Solano County.

The Solano County sheriff says Fernando Castro kidnapped Pearl Pinson Wednesday morning. It's believed he took the 15-year-old in Vallejo.

Castro got into a shootout with police 300 miles away in Solvang in Santa Barbara County. He is now dead, but Pinson's whereabouts are still unknown.

The Solano County sheriff said the suspect's car was seen in Marin County Thursday morning before the chase and shooting down south. That gave them a new search area, a new lead in the search for Pearl.

"Was spotted on cameras near the San Rafael Bridge," said Solano County Sheriff Deputy Christine Castillo during a news conference.

Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara says after the Amber Alert was issued for the 15-year-old girl a license plate reader hit on the suspect's gold Saturn.

The car was in Marin County around 9:30 Thursday morning, but there was no sign of Pearl.

"Did not appear she was in the car, no," Ferrara said.

Search teams will now focus on the area near Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, in addition to Vallejo and a large swath of land and waterways south of the Bay Area.

The CHP spotted 19-year-old Fernando Castro in the Saturn on Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo County Thursday afternoon a pursuit stretched further south into Santa Barbara County where Castro was killed in shootout with police.

"A phone call from my aunt that the guy almost ran her over, so showed up here and when we got here 20 shots were fired," said a witness near Solvang.

Back in Vallejo, family and friends gathered to pray at the apparent site of Pearl's abduction, the foot bridge over Highway 780, not far from the family's home.

It was 7 a.m. Wednesday when people in the neighborhood heard screaming.

"It was like when you're getting chased and you're screaming for help just like in horror movies," said witness Leslie Caro.

Pearl's family says she would have been walking to the school bus stop. They're not giving up hope that she will be found alive. Despite the pool of blood and Pearl's cellphone found on the footbridge.

"We just want to know where she's at. We want to know where he left her at," said Pearl's sister Rose Pinson.

Investigators believe Pearl was possibly shot on the bridge. Evidence technicians have not yet processed the suspect's car.