Missing-girl investigation centers on 1 man

A Pierce County man locked up for an immigration violation is the only person who Tacoma police are investigating in connection with the July 4 disappearance of a 12-year-old girl.

The man, who is not being identified because he has not been arrested or charged in connection with the disappearance of Zina Linnik, is a Level 1 registered sex offender who was convicted of first-degree incest in Pierce County in 1990.

"We don't have any other people of interest; we are still looking at all leads," said police spokesman Mark Fulghum.

The Pierce County man, 42, was arrested Monday after Tacoma police identified him as someone who hadn't been deported after being convicted of a felony, said Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Federal law mandates that all aliens convicted of felonies be deported to their home country.

Dankers couldn't explain why the man hadn't been deported after serving prison time. She said immigration officials learned about him from Tacoma police.

Tacoma police were led to the man because he drives a gray van that matches the description of a vehicle spotted leaving the area where Zina was last seen, Fulghum said. FBI agents searched the van, as well as the man's house, earlier this week.

Zina was last seen in an alley behind her Tacoma home on the Fourth of July, according to police. Witnesses said they heard a girl scream and saw an older gray van, driven by an Asian male, speed away. The man who police are investigating is Asian.

Fulghum said he doesn't know if Zina's family knows the man.

Zina is described as 4-foot-10 and weighing 80 pounds. She was wearing a pink T-shirt, capri pants and flip-flop sandals.

Police and FBI agents wrapped up a search of the Tiger Mountain State Forest in East King County today. Authorities were led to a rural swath of the mountain after the same tip that led them to the man led them to think that Zina might have been taken there after her abduction, Fulghum said.

"We were looking in a broad search area that would indicate that she had been up there since the Fourth of July," he said.

But, Fulghum added, the search resulted in "nothing earth-shattering" and provided no information that is "going to break the case."

Police still want to talk with two people seen waiting at a bus stop near South 25th and J streets around the time Zina disappeared. Fulghum said someone saw two males at the stop before and after the time that she went missing.

Information previously reported in The Seattle Times is contained in this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com