A girl kidnapped from her home in Pennsylvania was found wandering the streets of Brooklyn with no shoes after managing to escape her abductor, police said.
On Wednesday at around 2am, an Amber Alert was issued for 13-year-old Janae Kalia-Henry, who authorities said had been taken from her home in the residential area of Schuylkill Avenue in Reading. That locale would be 130 miles west of where the young girl was later found by New York police officers.
At the time, the Amber Alert described her kidnapper as an unidentified male who had taken the 13-year-old into a silver Chevrolet Traverse with an unknown Pennsylvania registration.
A little more than 15 hours after she was reported kidnapped, NYPD officers from the 75th Precinct in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Cypress Hills received a 911 call from a person who had been approached by the young girl. She had informed them that she’d been kidnapped.
When police arrived, they saw that Kalia-Henry, who had somehow managed to escape her attacker, was wearing no shoes.
“It was just some investigative leads that we developed, that we were following, that got us to that location,” said Reading Police Chief Richard Tornielli in a press briefing after securing the child. Authorities did not confirm whether she had suffered any injuries in the abduction.
Pennsylvania authorities later identified the suspect as Dwayne Taylor, 47, while the NYPD confirmed during the press briefing that charges against the man were pending.
“He is currently in custody in New York, being held on state charges and we will be arraigned in the near future,” the officer added.
The Reading Police Chief also noted during the press conference that the suspected kidnapper had a connection to the child, but did not elaborate further.
“We believe this individual was kidnapped by someone that she may have known or had known her. The neighbourhood is safe. There is no danger to the public,” he added.
The Pennsylvania city’s mayor, Eddie Moran, said during a press conference that he was relieved the child had been secured and offered tough words for those “trying to harm any of our little ones”.
“Let this be a lesson for anyone who’s trying to harm any of our little ones that we will do everything possible to ensure that they get apprehended,” Mr Moran said.
Chief Tornielli said that the previously missing girl would be heading back to her parents home in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night and that she didn’t require any immediate medical attention to be treated at a hospital.
