Suspect in kidnapping of 9-year-old girl wrote a ransom note to try to get money, court documents state

CNN, SPECTRUM NEWS (ALBANY)

By Elizabeth Wolfe, Andy Rose, John Miller and Sabrina Shulman, CNN

(CNN) — The 46-year-old man accused of kidnapping 9-year-old Charlotte Sena in upstate New York wrote a ransom note with intent to get money, according to an arraignment memorandum released Tuesday.

Craig Nelson Ross Jr., abducted the girl “and wrote a ransom letter with the intent to compel the payment of monies as ransom for her,” the document states.

He is charged with kidnapping in the first degree, and police said further charges were anticipated. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 6, according to the document. He was remanded to Saratoga County Correctional Facility without bail, New York State Police said in a news release.

CNN has reached out to the defense attorney for Ross.

The details from the court document come a day after the 9-year-old girl was reunited with her family following a frantic two-day search for her whereabouts. Her family released a statement Tuesday thanking law enforcement for safely resolving her disappearance.

“We are thrilled that she is home and we understand that the outcome is not what every family gets,” the Sena family said in a statement. “A huge thank you to the FBI, the New York State police, all of the agencies that were mobilized, all of the families, friends, community, neighbors and hundreds of volunteers who supported us and worked tirelessly to bring Charlotte home.”

Investigators were able to find Charlotte thanks to that ransom note, state officials said. The note was dropped in the mailbox at the Sena family’s home before dawn on Monday, and fingerprints on the note were instrumental in identifying Ross as a suspect, officials said.

Authorities then tracked him to a residence where law enforcement arrested him Monday evening and immediately found Charlotte hidden in a cabinet, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a news conference.

The girl appeared “outwardly physically unharmed” and was taken to a hospital to be examined, the governor said.

“Everyone in New York is breathing a collective sigh of relief right now,” Hochul told CNN on Monday night.

The path to discovering Charlotte

Charlotte went missing on Saturday during a family camping trip at New York’s Moreau Lake State Park, sparking an around-the-clock search involving hundreds of personnel from multiple agencies, including the FBI, state police said.

Hochul outlined the meticulous steps taken by investigators once the ransom note was discovered early Monday and described how cell phone data and other evidence aided in the case.

At around 4:20 a.m. Monday, less than 36 hours after Charlotte was reported missing, the suspect drove by the Sena family home and placed the ransom note in their mailbox, according to Hochul. Despite the early hour, Charlotte’s parents were still at the campsite searching for their daughter.

When state police, who were monitoring the home, discovered the note, they were able to recover fingerprints from the document and began running them through law enforcement databases to see if they could find a match, the governor said.

A hit came at 2:30 p.m., linking the fingerprint to Ross, the governor said. Ross’ fingerprint had been entered into the database for a 1999 incident of driving while intoxicated, she said.

That hit led investigators to a camper behind his mother’s double-wide mobile home.

“They located every residence and property which Mr. Ross was tied to and pinpointed a trailer that was behind his mom’s mobile home on Barrett road, in the town of Milton, which is about 13 miles south of where this family lives,” managing editor for The Albany Times Union, Brendan Lyons, who helped cover the story, said on CNN This Morning.

Two state and federal SWAT teams descended upon the residence in helicopters, made entry and arrested Ross around 6:30 p.m., Hochul said. Charlotte was immediately found inside a cabinet.

“She knew she was being rescued,” the governor said. “She knew she was in safe hands.”

Ross resisted arrest and suffered minor injuries while being taken into custody, state police said during a news conference Monday night.

In addition to the fingerprints, investigators also analyzed cell phone pings around the park at the time of Charlotte’s disappearance, Hochul told CNN Monday night. Additional insight came from park records, which contain information about visitors who paid an entrance fee or registered to camp overnight, she said.

“With those cell phone records, they can go back in time and figure out how long he was in that park and whether he had been monitoring that family either overnight, or through the day or only for minutes,” Lyons said. “It could have been that lightning struck when he drove in and saw opportunity.”

All of these investigative measures culminated in Charlotte being returned to her family, Hochul said.

“They were able to bring her to safety. And not long after, she was in the arms of her parents at a hospital,” the governor said.

Investigators still have many questions to answer, according to CNN’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller.

“Was this targeted, or was this just an opportunity where he planned a kidnapping and took a child, because the child happened to be alone?” Miller said.

While the focus is on getting Charlotte the care she needs, Miller noted that she may be able to help investigators answer some of their questions.

‘Every parent’s worst nightmare’

Charlotte’s parents were confronted with “every parent’s worst nightmare” when their daughter took off on her bike Saturday and didn’t return, Hochul said.

The girl was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday in Moreau Lake State Park, a popular recreation site about 45 miles north of Albany. She had been riding her bike with friends around one of the park loops and wanted to do one more loop by herself, according to the governor.

Charlotte’s mother reported her missing around 6:45 p.m. when her daughter’s bike was found abandoned in the loop and the 9-year-old was nowhere to be found, Lt. Colonel Richard Mazzone of the New York State Police said.

As time went on and the search for Charlotte expanded across several counties, authorities began to fear she had been abducted, Hochul said.

“As each hour went on, hope faded. Because we all know the stories,” Hochul said.

State police described Charlotte in a news release as “a bright and adventurous girl who loves to be outside.”

“Charlotte has a huge heart and wants to create a club at her school for kids who don’t have friends. She always put others first,” state police said, assuring the public they were working tirelessly to find her.

By Monday morning, the search encompassed 46 linear miles and drew about 400 search and rescue personnel from state, federal and local law enforcement agencies, as well as private groups and dozens of volunteer fire departments, state police said.

“It was an awesome sight to witness … everyone doing their job,” Hochul said Monday night, thanking those who worked to find the girl.

“There were a lot of parents out there among the ranks and everybody thinks, ‘If it was my child, I would want everybody under the sun looking for them.’ And that’s what this team did,” she said.

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CNN’s Rachel Burstein Parks, Jennifer Henderson, Jared Formanek, Dave Alsup and Raja Razek contributed to this report.