The Little Girl Is Safe

TMS

Missing Philadelphia Girl Escapes to Safety Tue Jul 23,10:56 PM ET

By David Morgan

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A 7-year-old Philadelphia girl, abducted as she played outside the home of her grandmother on Monday night, was able to free herself and flee to safety after about nearly 24 hours of captivity, police said late on Tuesday.

Reuters Photo

Reuters
	Slideshow: Erica Pratt Abduction Case

Erica Pratt, a 3-foot-5-inch, 70-pound child, was bound with duct tape and locked in the pitch-dark basement of an abandoned home in north Philadelphia by a pair of kidnappers who left her with little more than a can of water, police said.

But the girl gnawed her way through the tape bound around her hands and feet, kicked out a panel in a locked basement door and shouted for help from the front window of the building, police said.

Three youngsters heard her, summoned two police officers, and Erica was in protective custody by 8:53 p.m. Tuesday.

"She's tired, she's shook up, but she's a very strong little girl," police Chief Inspector Robert Davis told reporters after the girl was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to have duct tape removed from her hair and a bloodshot eye examined.

Hospital officials said she appeared to be suffering from a corneal abrasion, possibly caused by tape that had been wrapped around her head and over her eyes.

Meanwhile, police said they were looking for two suspects in the abduction identified as James Burns, 29, and Edward Johnson, 23, both of Philadelphia, who were described as having long criminal records.

In another of a series of U.S. child abduction cases in the past six months, Erica was grabbed from a sidewalk as she played with a 5-year-old friend at 9:22 p.m. Monday by a man who dragged her screaming to an older-model white car while a second man waited inside the vehicle.

Her family began receiving telephone demands for $150,000 ransom within 15 minutes of her disappearance while city police and the FBI ( news - web sites) launched a massive search for the missing child.

CHEERS OF JUBILATION

News of her return sparked cheers of jubilation from family and friends outside the home of Erica's grandmother in southwest Philadelphia.

"We're happy. Everybody's happy," said Erica's mother, Serina Gillis. "I've very happy that my daughter's home."

The kidnapping had added Erica's name to a growing list of children abducted in cases that have attracted national attention. But to date, she is the only one of several abducted children found alive and well.

On Monday, prosecutors in California filed kidnapping, murder and sex-crime charges against 27-year-old Alejandro Avila for last week's killing of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, who was playing with a friend when she was abducted.

Critics say media attention to recent abductions has created the false impression that America's 60 million children are facing an epidemic of kidnappings.

FBI statistics depict a decline in child abductions during recent years, with the number of federal investigations involving kidnappers from outside the family declining to 93 in 2001 from 115 cases in 1998.

FreeRangeChicken

hooray! erica pratt is a very brave, smart little girl. i'm so glad she got out before they harmed her. i hope she can identify these jerks and put them behind bars where they belong. two happy endings in one night, imagine that

LyinEyes

Thank God, this is a wonderful outcome.

The spirit of a child..... such a wonderful thing, how dare someone try and take that away from them. If there is a hell, these people who hurt the little children should burn forever.

finnrot

This was an inside job. Wait and see.

Prisca

Glad to hear she is safe and well. So many kids disappear and are never heard of again.

FBI statistics depict a decline in child abductions during recent years, with the number of federal investigations involving kidnappers from outside the family declining to 93 in 2001 from 115 cases in 1998.

I thought things were supposed to be getting worse, not better, in these "last days"?

Mister Biggs

FreeRange... The abductors are already identified. They are currently on the lam.

finnrot... You'd have to be a jack-ass to say that this is an inside job. Obviously, you are ignorant of the facts. The police investigator's must all be dumb, blind fools since they believe that this was NOT an inside job.

So that more people don't display their ignorance (and since I am in the Philly area) I will say this:

The 11 o'clock news last night reported that the (2) men who abducted her were thugs and gangsta rappers who supported their dreams to be famous rappers by dealing drugs. These two men were rivals of the family of the kidnapped girl.

The uncle of the girl started his own record company called Capitol Punishment Records. However, he was murdered. (Because of the likeliness of getting killed in that lifestyle of drugs and gansta rap, many of them take out life-insurance policies to take care of their families). The mother of the girl inherited $150,000 (US) from the death of her brother (the girl's uncle).

When the two abductors caught wind of the inheritance money, they set out the plot to kidnap the girl.

Two suspects. One victim (not including the girl's family). Arrest warrants issued. Case almost closed.

Edited by - Mister Biggs on 24 July 2002 11:12:21

The Little Girl Is Safe

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