Another student kidnapped near school

Karen Zekan

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:30 a.m.

A man who kidnapped a 16-year-old girl near her high school and then robbed her home got away with little more than $12, Metro Police said.

Although the kidnapper initially claimed to have a gun, Lt. John Alamshaw said the girl was never harmed during Wednesday's bizarre abduction about 7:30 a.m. from the 100 block of North Decatur Boulevard.

The crime marked the second time in less than a week that a child has been abducted by a man while walking near school.

Investigators believe the kidnapper succeeded Wednesday in committing the crime because his victim was walking alone. Police were still looking for the kidnapper this morning.

According to the police report, the girl, after being dropped off by her mother, was walking along the west side of Decatur across from Western High School when the stranger first approached her and asked for a light.

When she told him she didn't have one, "he came up behind her and said, 'I have a gun. Keep walking,' " Alamshaw said.

The two walked to the area of Yale Street and Nebraska Avenue, where the man forced the girl into the car, the lieutenant said. The man drove around for a while and eventually asked the girl where she lived after reportedly seeing house keys in her hand.

Upon arriving at the residence in the 200 block of Falcon Lane, the kidnapper entered the deserted house and had the girl open drawers for him before taking her into a bedroom and demanding that she sit on a bed while he continued pilfering, Alamshaw said. The girl called police the minute the man drove away.

The abductor has been described as a black man between 20 and 30, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and approximately 160 pounds.

"If she had been walking with someone, this probably would not have happened," Alamshaw said.

Police spent the afternoon combing the girl's home for clues possibly left behind that could lead them to the man's identity. The victim said her kidnapper did not act unusual or appear intoxicated.

The incident has prompted the police to remind students of the safety in numbers and to exercise the buddy system by walking with a friend. Alamshaw also suggested that parents and guardians drop a student off on school property to ensure adult supervision.

A 10-year-old girl was similarly abducted by a gunman about 3:20 p.m. Friday while passing Estes Park on her way home from Estes McDoniel Elementary on Foxridge Drive in Henderson.

The suspect forced the girl to walk east along Foxridge Circle to Valle Verde Drive, where he forced her into a landscape planter and removed her shoes and pants. The girl was able to get away, police said, by kicking the man in the groin.

Police do not believe that the abductions on Friday and Wednesday are related. Friday's suspect was a white male, 6 feet 1 inches tall, with dirty blond hair, pockmarked face, and sunglasses. .

"The things we have most control over are the things that happen on our campuses," said Mary Stanley-Larsen, school district spokeswoman. "Off campus is when it becomes more difficult."

Stanley-Larsen said the district understands parents' concern for their children's safety both at school and on the way to and from. In response, she said school police officers patrol the grounds at the district's high schools and surrounding streets, and that hall monitors, principals, deans, administrators and teachers actively watch for suspicious incidents and are trained to intervene.