Child Abduction Digest 10-7-12

Sergeant Bluff, IA
The Sergeant Bluff Police Department reported an attempted abduction on Wednesday.

The incident follows on a string of reported abduction attempts reported recently in Northwest Iowa. However, it's not clear whether they are related to the Sergeant Bluff attempt, and no arrests have been made.

An 8-year-old girl was approached by a man in a white van near the elementary school in Sergeant Bluff, the police report said. The man asked her to get into his van.

The girl ran back into the school building, but did not tell her parents about the incident for a few days, officials said.

Baton Rouge, LA
A scenario hit home for one local mother Friday afternoon in Baton Rouge, when she learned that moments before she arrived, complete strangers asked to pick up her second grade son by name from Inspire Charter Academy.

Along with her questions, the mother also fears the couple saw her child's face before being sent away. The supervisor in charge of the after-school program, run by the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Baton Rouge, determined the couple was not on the student's approved pick up list and even took a picture of the man's license.

Cherokee, NE
Officials of Alta-Aurelia schools issued a warning email throughout the district Thursday after an alleged attempted abduction in Cherokee was reported to them by a Cherokee County Deputy.

A teenage male was reportedly approached around 11 a.m. at Central Park in Cherokee, near the Fareway store, by an older male in a silver minivan of unknown make, according to the schools report. The suspect told the person walking to get into the van and was very persistent in trying to get the person into the vehicle with him, but the person refused. The suspect was described as 40-50 years old with short gray hair.

In response to the report, a Cherokee County deputy was posted in Aurelia for additional patrol and to stand by as students were dismissed in the afternoon. Buena Vista County Sheriff Gary Launderville said that his office provided additional coverage for Alta throughout the day, and sent three officers to cover school dismissal time there. The schools and law enforcement planned to continue increased supervision at least through the end of the week. Parents who wished to pick up their children were encouraged to do so.

Bolivar, TN
A Mississippi man's infatuation with a 12-year-old Tennessee girl led him to plot her abduction for a year and kill her mother and sister, according to testimony in court Monday.

The abduction of the girl and another sister, along with the killings, spurred a manhunt through rugged, hilly Mississippi terrain for several days in the spring. The search ended when 35-year-old Adam Mayes fatally shot himself May 10 as authorities closed in on him in the northern Mississippi woods. Twelve-year-old Alexandria Bain and another sister who'd been kidnapped, 8-year-old sister Kyliyah, were rescued.

Minooka, IL
The Board of Education at Minooka Elementary School District 201 has given Superintendent Al Gegenheimer approval to seek bids for a chain-link fence along the edge of the Aux Sable Elementary School property on Misty Creek Drive in Minooka.

The decision to erect a fence came after a student at Aux Sable was allegedly the victim of an attempted child abduction during school hours several weeks ago.

After the boy ate lunch at school, he walked outside as usual for recess, he told his mom. He was one of the first kids out of the doors this time and stopped to wait for his brother and friends to catch up.


After veering slightly to the left toward the playground once he was outside, the boy stepped off of the school's blacktop and onto a grassy area separating the school from a cornfield.

The boy's back was to the cornfield as he was watching the school, waiting for his brother.

"He heard a crunching noise behind him and when he turned around he saw a man coming toward him," the mother recalled from her son's story. "The man covered (my son's) mouth and dragged him into the cornfield about three rows back."

Lafayette, LA
Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Deputies are investigating an attempted abduction.

According to Captain Kip Judice, a 14-year old boy was walking to his bus stop on Tideland Road in Lafayette, when he says he was approached by a man in a van saying that school was cancelled and that the teen should get inside his van. As that was happening the boy's school bus turned the corner and the boy continued to his bus, as the van drove away.

The boy's bus driver witnessed the incident and questioned the teen about the van. Deputies are working to put together a description of the suspect, but in the mean time they urge parents and students to be extra cautious.