Teen abducted from her Pennsylvania home in the middle of the night found safe in NYC, police say
A 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl was abducted from her home in the middle of the night, and, using video surveillance footage, authorities were able to locate the victim as well as the suspect in New York City, police said.
At 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Reading police received a call from a mother who reported her daughter missing from their home. She told officers she last saw her daughter in her bedroom at 10:30 p.m. the night before, Chief Richard Tornielli said at a press conference on Thursday.
Tornielli said police subsequently viewed home surveillance footage from around 2 a.m Wednesday that showed a man with his head covered by a sheet enter the girl's home. Cameras then captured the girl walking out of the house, with the man behind her. He carried the girl to a vehicle and put her in the backseat, police said.
Police identified Duane Taylor, the mother's ex-boyfriend, as a suspect.
On Wednesday afternoon, police issued a statewide Amber Alert for the teenager, and went to Taylor's home, located in New York City's Brooklyn neighborhood, where they arrested him. The girl, however, was not there.
A while later, she was found walking down a street in Brooklyn. She had approached a person in the street and told them she had been kidnapped, Tornielli said. She was taken to a local hospital for observation before being reunited with her mother.
Taylor is believed to be the only suspect in the incident, the police chief said. He remains in custody while authorities continue their investigation.
"We cant have folks like this in our city, terrorizing our city and traumatizing our residents," Tornielli said.
Tornielli thanked the several agencies who responded to the kidnapping, including the FBI and the NYPD, for their assistance in the case, and offered his thoughts and prayers to the girl and her family.
"I want to extend my appreciation to the family for their cooperation that they extended to us throughout the investigation and extend our thoughts and our prayers to the victim and her family," he said. "She's been through a very traumatic experience, the whole family has, the community has, and we just hope and pray they are able to get through this without too much more trauma."
