An Amber Alert was issued on Sunday for a nine-year-old girl who vanished from upstate New York on Saturday evening after going for a solo bike ride around dinnertime during a camping weekend with family and friends.
Charlotte Sena, of Greenfield, was reported missing from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County by her distraught parents, minutes after their group found the girl’s bike – but no sign of Charlotte, officials said on Sunday.
“Last evening, she went out on a bike ride; it wasn’t dark, right around dinnertime, and did a couple of loops with close friends she considers her cousins,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a Sunday afternoon news conference. “And then she decided after going around True Bay, she said she just wanted to go around one more time by herself – be that big girl, do it by herself.
“Literally 15 minutes later, she hadn’t come back yet,” the governor said. “And that’s really when the nightmare begins.”
According to Lt Col Richard Mazzone of the NYSP, Charlotte was last seen at approximately 6.15pm riding her bike in Loop A of the park. When she hadn’t come back and her group went looking for her, the bike was found in the same area at 6.45pm and Charlotte’s mother called 911 two minutes later. Police were on site by 7pm Saturday, Gov Hochul said.
Multi-agency search and rescue teams were deployed, including aviation, canine and civilian support, and “a missing child alert was issued last night and search efforts continued throughout the night,” Lt Col Mazzone said. “In addition to our massive search efforts, our Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been conducting interviews with those in the park and around the region as well as pursuing all investigative leads.
Charlotte Sena, nine, vanished on Saturday evening from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County, New York— (New York State Police)
“Additional search teams were deployed this morning and an Amber Alert was issued at 9.35am this morning,” he said, adding that the alert was issued “because we felt that, after that exhaustive search, when we couldn’t find her here, it was quite possible that an abduction had taken place.”
He described Charlotte as a nine-year-old white female with long blonde hair standing approximately 5’1 and weighing about 90 pounds. She was last seen wearing an orange tie-dyed Pokemon shirt, dark blue trousers, black Crocs and a grey bike helmet.
“Right now, there’s over 100 personnel deployed, 75 law enforcement on the ground, two drones and airboat search teams, six underwater rescue teams, another boat that has sonar,” Gov Hochul said Sunday. “We also have the Schenectady Fire Office her assisting with the search, given that Charlotte is the niece of one of the members of the Schenectady Fire Department.
“We are leaving no stone, no branch, no table, no cabin, unturned, untouched, unexamined in our search to find Charlotte,” she said.
