A 7-year-old Philadelphia girl, abducted as she played outside the home of her grandmother on Monday night, was able to free herself and flee to safety after about nearly 24 hours of captivity. Erica Pratt, a 3-foot-5-inch, 70-pound child, was bound with duct tape and locked in the pitch-dark basement of an abandoned home in north Philadelphia by a pair of kidnappers. But the girl gnawed her way through the tape bound around her hands and feet, kicked out a panel in a locked basement door and shouted for help from the front window of the building. Three youngsters heard her, summoned two police officers, and Erica was in protective custody by 8:53 p.m. Tuesday. "She's tired, she's shook up, but she's a very strong little girl," police Chief Inspector Robert Davis told reporters after the girl was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to have duct tape removed from her hair and a bloodshot eye examined.
She's one brave and resourceful little girl. Nancy Drew's got nothin' on her.
Meanwhile, police said they were looking for two suspects in the abduction identified as James Burns, 29, and Edward Johnson, 23, both of Philadelphia, who were described as having long criminal records.
I'm glad this one worked out the way it did. The first thought that popped into my mind when I saw it on terriblevision was that it was a Kopycat Killer, and that she'd be found lying by the side of the road like Samantha. |