7-year-old kidnapping victim escapes
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The rumor going around 7-year-old Erica Pratt’s blighted neighborhood was that her family had come into money. A lot of money. Neighbors thought maybe that’s why two men had snatched the little girl from the sidewalk in front of her home Monday night and someone had called the family demanding $150,000 in exchange for Erica’s life.
Whatever the motive, the plot was foiled Tuesday night. Police said the “brave little girl” chewed through duct tape binding her hands and covering her eyes, and broke out of the locked basement in an abandoned home where she had been held for almost 24 hours. The girl was back at home Wednesday, appearing no worse the wear for her harrowing abduction and thrilling escape.
The hunt for her two abductors continued Wednesday. Police say the two men wanted for questioning – James Burns, 29, and Edward Johnson, 23 – are known to the girl’s family.
If the kidnappers had planned to use Erica in a get-rich-quick scheme, they picked an unusual target.
The Pratts are far from wealthy, family members and neighbors said. Their home, a small blue-and-white brick rowhouse, sits on a block peppered with abandoned buildings.
“They don’t have $150,000. There’s not $150,000 in this whole neighborhood,” said Mannwell Glenn, a friend of the family who has been acting as their spokesman.
Erica’s mother, Serena Gillis, had her as a teenager and gave her up to be raised by her grandmother.
Just about everyone on the street had heard stories the family might have come into money. Some said the girl’s uncle had died, leaving behind a lucrative life insurance policy. Others said a relative who owned a record label had just signed a contract with Death Row Records, a major rap label.
Both stories had elements of truth.
One of the girl’s uncles, Joseph Pratt Jr., was shot dead in his car in March. But family members said there was no life insurance.
Another uncle, Derrick Pratt, is the chief executive of an independent rap record label, CP Entertainment, and had briefly been in talks with Death Row – but no deal and no financial windfall was in the works, Glenn said.
“This whole thing was a misunderstanding and misinformation that got blown out of proportion and a little 7-year-old girl got caught up in it,” Glenn said.
By mid-afternoon Wednesday, Erica was racing through her old neighborhood, smiling, waving to reporters and playing tag with friends who a day earlier had been talking solemnly about a playmate who might never return.
Dressed in bright pink, with barrettes in her hair, Erica fidgeted in the arms of a relative and buried her face in a stuffed animal when asked to talk.
Police said she suffered only minor injuries in her ordeal and relatives said she was recovering well.
“She seems totally normal,” uncle Joseph Moore Jr. said. “If she’s forgotten about what happened, I’d just as soon it would stay forgotten.”
Authorities said Erica described an extraordinary getaway from the two men:
She was bound with duct tape around her arms, legs and eyes and left in the dirty basement of a building 10 miles from home. She was able to chew through the tape, break through the basement door and go up to the first floor. Unable to escape, she smashed a window and called out for help to some children playing in front of the abandoned house.
The children pulled Erica out of the window, and one of them rode their bike to alert the police, Lt. Michael Chitwood said.
News of Erica’s escape came a day after a man was charged with kidnapping and killing 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton, Calif. It also follows the high-profile kidnappings of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City and of two San Diego children, 7-year-old Danielle van Dam and 2-year-old Jahi Turner. Elizabeth and Jahi remain missing; Danielle was slain.
Police said Erica had only a can of water during her ordeal, and the officers who found her gave her part of a chicken sandwich.
“She’s an amazing little girl,” Chief Inspector Robert Davis said.
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On the Net:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: http://www.missingkids.com