A 15-year-old American girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months ago was found alive walking down a street with a drifter who had once done work at the family’s home.

David Westerfield, called a ”cold-hearted child killer” by California prosecutors, was sentenced to death today in the kidnap and murder of 7-year-old girl who was snatched from her bedroom last February.

A California police chief said a sex attacker who kidnapped and raped two teenage girls was minutes away from killing his victims when he was shot dead by sheriff’s deputies.

A CHILD'S body that resembles an abducted five-year-old American girl was found in a rugged, heavily forested area of a neighbouring county, but officials couldn't immediately say if it was that of missing Samantha Runnion.