The suspect in the kidnapping of a 9-year-old New York girl over the weekend was investigated this summer for alleged child sexual abuse, but the case was closed last month without charges.
Craig N. Ross Jr, who has been charged with kidnapping Charlotte Sena from Moreau Lake Campground, denied allegations that he had sexually abused a 12-year-old family friend more than a year ago, sources told the Albany Times-Union. The complaint was filed earlier in the summer.
Ross is accused of snatching young Sena off her bicycle as she traveled around a loop road through campsites at the park, where family and friends had gathered for an end-of-summer camping trip. A frantic search ended on Monday evening, after Ross left a ransom note at the Senas’ home in Porter Corners, and investigators matched fingerprints on the note with Ross’s prints from a 1999 drunk driving arrest, as CrimeOnline reported.
The ransom note drop off raised questions: A New York State trooper was guarding the family home at the time, while the family remained at the park. That trooper saw someone drop something in the mailbox and then drive away in a truck. The note allegedly asked for $50,000 for the girl’s safe return, sources told the Times-Union.
The sources said the trooper has not been accused of mishandling the situation, but state police are examining the incident to determine if Ross should have been stopped at that point and possibly arrested.
Col. Richard Allen, the acting head of the New York State Police, told ABC News Tuesday night that “people were stopping all night” at the family’s residence” and the trooper stationed at the house assumed he was a “regular person.”
Allen also denied reports that Sena’s bike was found in a ditch. It was found with its kickstand down, he said.
Investigators have said they have no evidence so far that Ross knew the family, who lived about 12 miles south of the park. Ross lived in a camper behind his mother’s double-wide trailer, another 13 miles south of the Sena residence. Law enforcement used flash bangs to make entry into Ross’s camper and found the missing girl in a kitchen cabinet.
Detectives are still tryings to piece together the circumstances of the kidnapping to determine if he targeted the girl or just happened upon her as she rode her bike. It’s also not yet known why he was at the park Saturday evening.
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[Featured image: Craig Ross/Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office]
