A missing 9-year-old girl who was abducted from an upstate New York park has been found safe inside the cabinet of a camper belonging to the suspect.
The young girl, Charlotte Sena, was rescued from the camper belonging to 47-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr., who was caught after he left a ransom note at Sena’s home, the New York Post reported. Ross has been charged with first-degree kidnapping.
Sena was abducted on Saturday from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County, New York, and a massive search began to find her, with an Amber Alert saying she was “in imminent danger.” On Monday evening, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced Sena’s safe return.
“Sena will be going home,” Hochul said, according to the Post.
Earlier Monday, Ross allegedly placed a ransom note containing his fingerprints in the Sena family’s mailbox. The fingerprints were entered into a database and came back as a match for Ross, who had a previous arrest in 1999 for DWI.
“He literally drove up to the family’s mailbox, assuming they were not home [at] 4:20 in the morning, opens the mailbox and inserts the ransom note leaving the critical piece of evidence behind — his own fingerprint,” Hochul said Monday evening.
Two law enforcement teams then took helicopters to land at the address where Ross lived in a camper behind his mother’s house. “After some resistance,” Hochul said, Ross was arrested.
“Immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet cupboard,” Hochul said. “She was rescued and she knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.”
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Sena appeared unharmed but was taken to a hospital per policy.
It is unclear whether this was random or if Ross targeted Sena specifically. He does live just two miles away from her family.
“But it is not known at this time, whether he knew her or had her under surveillance for any length of time,” Hochul said.
Sena was camping with her family over the weekend when she rode her bike around Loop A of the park, at first with family friends and then once by herself. When she didn’t return after 15 minutes, her parents and others began searching for her, finding only her bike. Her parents then called 911.
The search for Sena included more than 400 personnel and 75 law enforcement officials on the ground, including NY State Police K-9s and bloodhounds.