A 10-year-old girl was found more than three hours after being taken by a stranger while heading home from school with a friend on Wednesday afternoon.
According to FOX 2 sources, the kidnapper sexually molested the girl at his residence on Braile Street near Fenkell Avenue in Detroit.
According to Detroit police, the two pals, both 10, were heading back from Gompers Elementary School on the city’s west side when a 59-year-old male allegedly approached them and began a chat. One girl followed the man, while the other continued to walk home.
“I’m not surprised,” said Wilma Butler, who has lived in the same Detroit area for ten years – the same block from where the girl was snatched. “It is not safe for anyone. It is not safe for tiny boys to be alone, let alone little girls.”
Butler is not shocked given the area’s high concentration of sex offenders.
“I found out there were around 117 sex offenders that had coerced children under the age of 13 between Fenkell and Grand River,” she went on to say.
The man approached the child’s friend, who notified her parents about it. The police were then alerted of the occurrence.
“It’s quite scary. Very terrifying. “It’s a mother’s worst nightmare,” said Amber Roberson of Detroit Police’s Homicide Unit. “For us, it’s like if our child did not return home. That’s why the sense of urgency is so strong.
Detroit police and Detroit public school officials quickly scoured the neighborhood, examining cameras and canvassing, until they discovered the missing girl almost three hours later.
The culprit was put into custody.
The 10-year-old girl was brought to the hospital, and she is expected to recover physically.
“It’s a terrible thing, and I hope she’ll be able to overcome it,” Butler, the neighbor, said.
At this point in the investigation, it is unclear whether the alleged individual is a registered sex offender or has a history of such behavior.
Charges are expected.