A 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl abducted Wednesday was found more than 150 miles away in New York City without shoes on, officials said, noting there was a “connection” to her abductor.
An Ambert Alert was issued on Wednesday for Janae Kalia-Henry after she was abducted from a home in Reading around 2 a.m., Police Chief Richard Tornielli said in an evening news conference.
Pennsylvania state police said the child was taken by an unknown man who placed her in a silver Chevrolet Traverse.
She was found more than 15 hours later on Liberty Avenue in Brooklyn around 6 p.m. Wednesday, New York City police said.
The development came when a person called 911 and said they had found a missing girl. Police said Kalia-Henry had told the caller that she had previously been abducted from Pennsylvania.
She was taken to hospital for examination and showed no visible injuries, police said.
Tornielli said detectives will take the girl to her house.
The NYPD and FBI arrested Dwayne Taylor, 47, in Brooklyn on state charges, Tornielli said. It is not clear what those charges are.
He was taken into custody after Reading Police called the NYPD saying a person of interest in the case was near the Broadway Junction tube station, but he was not found after a search.
The motive behind the kidnapping was not shared, but Tornielli said authorities “do not believe this was a random kidnapping”.
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“We thought she may have been abducted by someone she may have known or knew,” he said.
Relatives told NBC Philadelphia that Kalia-Henry’s mother dated Taylor a few months after they met online. The two had broken up and Taylor broke into the house Wednesday morning and took the girl for unknown reasons, relatives said.
Reading Mayor Eddie Moran warned the public: “Let this be a lesson to anyone who tries to harm one of our little ones that we will do everything possible to ensure they are apprehended immediately.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
