Amber Alert Canceled After Abducted 13-Year-Old Girl Escapes Kidnapper

During the early hours of Aug. 31, 2022, a 13-year-old girl was kidnapped from her family’s home in Reading, Pennsylvania. An Amber Alert was soon issued for the girl, MSN reported.

According to WGAL, surveillance video from inside the home showed a man whose head was covered with a sheet entering the residence around 2 a.m. and going to the second floor. He was then seen carrying her outside to a silver Chevrolet Traverse, placing her inside the car and leaving.

Later that day, the young teen was found over a hundred miles away walking around without shoes on Liberty Avenue in Brooklyn, New York around 6 p.m. According to NBC News, a person called the police to report they had found the missing girl. When police arrived, the girl told them that she had been kidnapped earlier that morning from her home. The Amber Alert was then canceled.

She was taken to the hospital but had no apparent injuries, and soon after, a 47-year-old suspect named Dwayne Taylor was taken into custody on state charges.

ABC News reported that the relationship between the kidnapper and the child was unknown, but he wasn’t a stranger. According to NBC Philadelphia, family members said that the girl’s mother had dated Taylor for a couple of months, but they broke up shortly before the kidnapping.

The 13-year-old girl was returned to her family soon after she was found.

Taylor was charged with kidnapping of a minor, false imprisonment, concealing the whereabouts of a child, interference with custody of a child, and unlawful restraint.