Report: Pa. man who saw Amber Alert helped find infant abducted by murder suspect
READING, Pa. -- Police say an infant abducted in western Pennsylvania was found safe 330 miles away thanks to a quick-thinking resident who saw an Amber Alert on his phone.
The incident began Saturday afternoon when police in Sharpsville, near the state’s border with Ohio, found 28-year-old mother Amanda Downs slain in a home and her eight-month-old daughter Ariella missing. Police quickly identified the child’s father, 36-year-old Antonio Velazquez-Rupert, as a suspect in the killing and the abduction, reports CBS affiliate WKBN.
Pennsylvania State Police issued an Amber Alert. After receiving the alert, Velazquez-Rupert’s family told police the suspect may have been heading to Reading, Pa., about 330 miles east, a family friend told the station. Velazquez-Rupert, who is Amanda Downs’ ex-boyfriend, is originally from Reading and has family there, the friend said.
At the same time, an off-duty security worker in Reading who had just seen the Amber Alert on his phone noticed a vehicle that matched the SUV officials described in the alert, reports WFMZ.
“I dialed 911 and I took off after him,” Daniel Deturck told WFMZ.
Deturck told the station he eventually lost sight of the SUV. But with the information he gave dispatchers, police were reportedly able to track down the SUV, arrest Velasquez-Rupert and rescue the infant.
“I work in security,” Deturck told the station. “We’re trained to respond on anything and everything that we see, and my training kicked in.”
State police say the child was found safe less than an hour after the Amber Alert was issued.
Velazquez-Rupert, who has a long criminal history, is charged with homicide, kidnapping and custody interference, reports WKBN. He is being held in the Berks County Jail.
A cause of death for Amanda Downs hasn’t been released.