Trial date set for alleged kidnapper

Lin was arrested as a suspect in the 22-year-old case after members of the Hillsborough Police Department traveled to the Los Angeles area to investigate information provided by the U.S. State Department, according to police previously.

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said previously Lin’s arrest is the second to come out of three warrants issued in connection with the kidnapping of the girl near the Hillsborough elementary school she attended. A Pasadena man named John Balocca, who was convicted of the crime in 1997 and served about 18 years in state prison, and Brian Ming Shieh, another Southern California man who was never apprehended, were believed to have kidnapped the girl in a van and held her for nine hours before dropping her off near the San Francisco International Airport, according to Wagstaffe.

Lin is believed to have helped plan, coordinate and carry out the plan to kidnap the girl, said Wagstaffe, who said previously that no other motive except for money for the kidnapping has surfaced in the years since investigators began working on it.

Wagstaffe previously said Lin was identified by photo when he was going through customs at a Southern California airport after a recent trip outside the country. He said Lin was traveling under his own name and that a photo attached to a warrant out for his arrest in connection to the kidnapping flagged his case for police.