Nine-year-old missing After a search, Charlotte Sena was discovered in good health in New York, and the suspect was taken into jail.
After a two-day, frantic search, a 9-year-old girl who had vanished from an Upstate New York campground was discovered alive on Monday.
Police reported that a suspect was in custody. About 35 miles north of Albany, New York, where she was camping with her family, Charlotte Sena was last seen on her bicycle at 6:15 p.m. on Saturday in Moreau Lake State Park. Authorities of the New York State Police reported that Charlotte Sena had been found and was healthy. “A suspect is being held. The probe is still ongoing.
According to an update on the case posted on their website, police “identified an individual as being in the area of the Moreau Lake State Park around the time Charlotte went missing” during their investigation.
“Further investigation led to the search of multiple residences where the individual is known to reside,” they claimed. At around 6:30 p.m. on Monday, during the search of the homes, authorities discovered Charlotte.
According to police, “this investigation is the result of numerous agencies coming together with the shared objective of returning this child to her devoted family.” “We cannot express how grateful we are for the assistance from Charlotte’s neighborhood, neighbors, and family.
What took place?
With her friends, Sena was cycling around a loop in the picturesque park when she made the decision to go around again by herself. Trisha Sena, Charlotte’s mother, discovered the bicycle after thirty minutes but not Charlotte. When she dialed 911, state police, forest rangers, divers, dogs, drones, and helicopters all joined the mammoth search.
The vast search for Charlotte Sena is ongoing, according to the New York State Police. On Sunday morning, an Amber Alert was issued for Charlotte.
According to the Amber Alert, “The child was taken under circumstances that lead police to believe that they are in immediate danger of serious harm and/or death.”
The search, which covered 46 linear miles, was overseen by Forest Rangers from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, according to New York State Police.
Currently, 400 certified search and rescue workers are actively searching, according to a state police post on Facebook made on Monday afternoon. The searchers come from private search and rescue organizations, 34 volunteer fire departments, and law enforcement organizations.
According to a Monday report from CBS New York, the FBI also joined the hunt.
Charlotte was last seen at Moreau Lake State Park, which is still closed “until further notice,” according to its website. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation describes the 4,600 acres of state park in Saratoga County as “mostly wild” and noting that it has pine stands, rocky ridges, and deep forests. The campsites in the woods are “quiet and secluded.”
The family has described Charlotte Sena’s disappearance as a “nightmare.”
Charlotte’s aunt Jené Sena told USA TODAY that the previous three days had been a “nightmare” for her family.
In order to aid authorities in their search, Charlotte’s mother and father have been present at the campsite since Saturday. Over 30 family members and friends were there, according to Jené Sena.
Along with other family members, her husband, Patrick Sena, a firefighter with the Schenectady Fire Department, had been looking for their niece since Saturday night. After working a 24-hour shift, he spent the whole Saturday night and much of the next day in the state park.
Jené Sena stated, “My spouse was unable to walk this morning.
The middle child of three females is named Charlotte. Her mother Trisha works as a food service inspector for Stewart’s Shops convenience shops, and her father David Sena is a union pipe fitter. The family resides in Greenfield, a town in New York’s Saratoga County with a population of roughly 8,200.
Charlotte was described by Jené Sena as a sweet, charming child with a contagious grin and a reputation for her dry humor.
Jené Sena remarked, “She is such a sweet girl. An absolute darling.
Law enforcement was “putting the puzzle pieces together” before Charlotte was discovered, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
According to John Bischoff, vice president of the Missing Children Division at the nonprofit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the initial stages of a case involving a missing child are critical for law enforcement as they “put the puzzle pieces together” of what happened and create a timeline.
Depending on the kind of missing child situation, such “puzzle pieces” may change. According to Bischoff, the case in Upstate New York was likely a “non-familial abduction.”
Due to the fact that Charlotte’s disappearance occurred in a state park, Bischoff said that investigators in the hunt for Charlotte considered “who these people are, who was in the area in the park, who was in the park at the time of the disappearance, and what’s transpired beforehand and what’s transpired up to today.” According to him, his organization helped the New York State Police.
“Charlotte’s case is a parent’s worst nightmare — to see your child ride off on a bicycle and never see them again, or for a few days at least,” he said.
The case sheds light on almost all of the approximately 7,000 missing children that are listed on the website of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. At the nonprofit’s “partner locations like Walmart,” Bischoff is urging people to “stop for a second” and “really look for those images behind every one of those images child in danger,” he said.