According to jail records, at three in the morning on Tuesday, 46-year-old Craig Ross Jr. of New York was charged with first-degree kidnapping in connection with the alleged abduction of a 9-year-old child from a bicycle trail in a state park close to Lake George.
State police allegedly saw the suspect shove a ransom note into Charlotte Sena’s mailbox around 4:20 a.m. on Monday, according to state police, and they later saw his fingerprints on the paper, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who revealed the identity of the suspect during a late-night news briefing.
According to jail records, he was lodged at the Ballston Spa, New York-based Saratoga County Jail at 3:40 a.m. There wasn’t a mugshot available right away.
According to court records acquired by Fox News Digital, Ross was charged with kidnapping in the wee hours of the morning before a Milton Town Court emergency hearing before Justice Tim Brown.
“The defendant did abduct [the victim] and wrote a ransom letter with the intent to compel the payment of a ransom for her,” state police wrote in a felony complaint.
According to the New York State Police, he was being held without bond on a single allegation of first-degree kidnapping.
On Monday night, just outside Saratoga Springs in Milton, state and federal tactical troops raided a camper behind his mother’s double-wide trailer.
“Within the camper, they located the suspect,“: Hochul said during a Friday evening news briefing in Latham. “After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody, and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, covered. She was rescued.”
Charlotte was brought to a nearby hospital, where she met up with her family once more, according to Hochul.
Around eleven o’clock when the governor spoke, Ross was still being questioned. She said that court records were not immediately accessible until Tuesday during business hours.
Ross’ fingerprints were discovered in a law enforcement database thanks to a 1999 drunken driving charge, Hochul said. State police stationed nearby the family home saw him drop something in the mailbox, and they later claimed to have discovered the prints on the ransom note.
He was charged with misdemeanour “obstruction of breathing” in April 2017, according to local media, the Saratogian daily reported.
“We are just elated she came home,” Jene Sena, Charlotte’s aunt, told Fox News Digital Monday evening after the arrest.
