-Caveat Lector- This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
7-Year-Old Philadelphia Girl, Abducted Monday, Breaks Free July 24, 2002 By RICHARD LEZIN JONES PHILADELPHIA, July 23 - A 7-year-old girl who was abducted kicking and screaming on Monday a few feet from her home escaped from her captors tonight, less than 24 hours after kidnappers had demanded a $150,000 ransom. The Philadelphia police outlined a remarkable sequence of events surrounding the escape of girl, Erica Pratt, who had been seized while she played outside her Southwest Philadelphia home. After she was abducted around 9 p.m. on Monday, Erica was taken to an abandoned rowhouse in North Philadelphia about 12 miles from her home, the police said. Once there, investigators said, her captors covered her eyes and bound her hands and feet with duct tape and left her alone, locked in a darkened basement. For hours, the police said, Erica gnawed through the duct tape that bound her. Then, mostly feeling her way through the darkened basement, she hopped up the basement stairs only to the find the door locked, the police said. The girl kicked out a wooden panel on the basement door, wriggled through the narrow opening, then punched out a window and screamed for help, the authorities said. Two boys who had been playing outside the house heard her cries and led a pair of police officers to her. "It amazes me that a girl who is only 7 years old has the composure to take the time to gnaw her way out of the duct tape and get out," said Chief Inspector Robert Davis of the Philadelphia police. Erica was being treated tonight at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for a cut on her cornea. Her escape, just before 8 tonight, came hours after the police announced that they were seeking two men - James Burns, 29, and Edward Johnson, 23, - for questioning in her disappearance. After Erica was found, the authorities said both men were being treated as suspects. The police said that the abduction was not random and that someone had hoped to extort money from the Pratt family. Investigators said it was not clear why someone would believe that a family in this working-class slice of Philadelphia would be able to afford a six-figure ransom. Neighbors, though, suggested today that Erica may have been a target because of reports that her family recently received the proceeds from a life insurance policy. Although officials could not confirm whether a policy existed, investigators said they had not ruled out any motives. Investigators said that they believed that the kidnappers might have known members of Erica's family, a suspicion shared by the girl's mother. "For them to ask for money, it must be someone the family knows," said the mother, Sarina Gillis. "They have to be. Why would they target them at all and come and take her? This is not some ordinary kidnapping. They are asking for money. They are not asking for money for nothing." Ms. Gillis said that neither she nor her mother, with whom Erica had lived for the past three years, could afford the ransom and added that she was unaware of any recent financial windfall. The police said Erica was abducted near 60th Street and Kingsessing Avenue on a balmy night as neighbors were exchanging gossip on porches or attending a small block party on the heavily traveled street. Witnesses told the police that Erica had been walking down the street with her 5-year-old sister, Naliyah, when a white car pulled alongside the girls and an occupant called Erica's name. Within seconds, the police said, the passenger door opened and a man pulled the girl into the car while her horrified sister watched. Neighbors first learned of the abduction when they saw a distraught Naliyah sprinting away. "We saw the other little girl running up the street crying and screaming, `They took her from me, they took her from me!"' recalled Keirstan Price, 16. "It was like one minute she was here, the next minute she wasn't." Patricia Adams, who lives across the street from Erica's family, said adults tried to calm Naliyah so they could learn exactly what had happened. "She was hysterical," Ms. Adams said. The block, like much of the rest of the neighborhood, has seen better days. After years of violent turf wars among drug dealers in this part of Southwest Philadelphia, the police have focused on Erica's block as part of its "Safe Streets" program. And although there are at least a half-dozen abandoned homes on the street, neighbors see a resurgence in signs large and small, from the increased police presence to the hibiscus in Vikki Price's front yard. Even though the police said Erica's abduction was not a random act, it still sent a shudder through parents here. "You hear about it happening in other parts of the country," Ms. Adams said, alluding to recent high-profile abductions in California and Utah. "But it's still frightening when the reality hits you: it can happen right here." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/national/24GIRL.html?ex=1028511461&ei=1&en=3aa5d6bdcb4dc16a HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
