By Jesse McKinley
Reported from Albany and Moreau Lake State Park. Oct. 2, 2023
After an intense 48-hour search, a missing 9-year-old girl who disappeared over the weekend while on a camping trip with her family in upstate New York was found safe Monday evening, and a suspect was in custody, according to the New York State Police.
The girl, Charlotte Sena, went missing during an early evening bike ride on Saturday in Moreau Lake State Park, about 45 miles north of Albany. Soon after her disappearance, Charlotte’s bike was found, leading authorities to conclude that she had been abducted — a scenario that the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, called “every parent’s nightmare.”
In a late night news conference on Monday, Ms. Hochul identified the suspect as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47. She said that the case began to break before dawn on Monday morning, when state police, monitoring Charlotte’s family home in nearby Greenfield, N.Y., noticed a car approach and someone — believed to be Mr. Ross — placed a ransom note in the mailbox.
Troopers retrieved that note and managed to draw a fingerprint off it, the governor said. That fingerprint was linked to an arrest in 1999 of Mr. Ross for driving while intoxicated.