Disturbing new details about Charlotte Sena’s kidnapping revealed, reports say
Disturbing new details emerged Tuesday surrounding the abduction of nine-year-old Charlotte Sena and the suspect who allegedly stole her from a park while she was riding her bike.
In an indictment memorandum received from CNNCraig Nelson Ross Jr., 46, “wrote a ransom letter with the intent of forcing ransom payment on their behalf,” the document states.
New details that emerged Tuesday also include that Ross may have forced the child to write his own ransom letter demanding $50,000 from his parents. These details were published in a report by the Albany Times-Unionwhich cited anonymous police sources.
The Times-Union‘s sources also revealed that a state trooper is under surveillance for failing to arrest Ross when he dropped the message into a mailbox at Sena’s family home, which was under police surveillance, early Monday morning.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has been involved in searches and has spoken repeatedly about the case since Sena’s discovery, did not address why a state trooper guarding Sena’s family residence did not arrest Ross in any of her comments about the ordeal a live interview on CNN and a press conference on Monday evening.
Officials said Ross was arrested Monday evening shortly after officers searched the mobile home he was staying in, which was next to his mother’s trailer. He has since been charged with kidnapping and is accused of stealing Sena from a bike loop in Moreau Lake State Park in upstate New York on Saturday. Police expect additional charges to be filed.
Officials said Sena was found stuffed in a closet in the RV. She was in “good physical health,” but authorities have not discussed her mental well-being, nor have they said what the girl endured during the nearly 48 hours she was captive to Ross.
sources told CNN that investigators held off on questioning Sena about what happened to Ross. They told the station that Sena was returned to her family after a medical examination and that she would eventually be spoken to by specially trained forensic interviewers who work with young victims.
Investigators were able to identify Ross as a suspect using a fingerprint he left on the ransom note. Authorities said the fingerprint returned as a match to Ross from a 1999 arrest for driving under the influence.
Ross was nabbed four hours after the match was confirmed when a specially trained police unit reportedly searched his motorhome and discovered he was wearing only his underwear Times-Union‘s sources.
The Times-Union reported that after being taken into custody, Ross did not cooperate with authorities and sustained minor injuries. He reportedly refused to reveal details of the abduction and would not say whether he had specifically targeted Sena or not.
Police have not publicly identified a relationship between Sena and Ross, although authorities have disclosed that an address provided by Ross is near the Sena family home.
Ross was recently at the center of a New York State Police investigation into sexual abuse allegations alleging he assaulted a girl when she was about 12 years old. The Times-Union reported that Ross denied these allegations, which are more than a year old, and that investigators completed their investigation into Ross last month.
Ross is represented by a public defender in Saratoga County, who did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast at the time of publication. The suspected kidnapper appears to have fallen out of favor with his own children TMZ He reported Tuesday that his son Joshua said his father was “disgusting,” “disgusting” and that he “should die.”
“He is in prison. We want nothing to do with him,” the video showed Joshua shouting from a screened-in porch. “I wouldn’t give a shit if the guy dropped dead tomorrow. I couldn’t care less.”
