October 14, 2016
Excerpted from:
FBI baffled by mysterious Cleveland and Elyria child abduction cases
by Adam Ferrise
October 13, 2016
cleveland.comCLEVELAND, Ohio — The case of a man who abducted a 6-year-old Cleveland girl and later tried to abduct a 10-year-old Elyria girl has left federal investigators baffled.
More than 200 agents and police officers across the state have worked on the case. They have surveillance video of the kidnapper that shows his face. They have him on video driving a distinctive car.
They’ve blasted his photo out via social media and highway billboards nationwide in hopes that someone would recognize him.
But the 325 tips that have come into the FBI have led nowhere.Now the FBI is hoping that people in smaller townships and villages in Northeast Ohio recognize him. They’re specifically re-directing their efforts in Lorain County, where the first known attempted abduction happened on Feb. 25.
The fact that the FBI has not yet received any useful tips from the public is less troubling than the fact that the perpetrator was apparently observed casing his victims’ residences, but never reported on in the first place. See Something Say Something is not a concept that should be limited only to terrorism. Private citizens can provide actionable intelligence on a wide variety of criminal activities and should be encouraged/reminded that sometimes even the smallest bit of information can lead to a major investigation. We hope law enforcement’s efforts to widen the BOLO alerts to smaller communities pay dividends.
