The Generation, Year: 1, Issue: 12
A man accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from a state park in upstate New York raped the child during the two days she was held hostage before her rescue, prosecutors said Friday.
Craig N. Ross Jr. was initially charged only with first-degree kidnapping in the abduction of the girl on Sept. 30 from Moreau Lake State Park, located in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains about 35 miles north of Albany. A massive search in the rural area ended two days later when state police troopers and FBI SWAT team stormed a camper Ross was staying in. Rescuers found the girl in a cabinet.
The break in the case had come after officers stationed at the girl’s home saw someone drop a ransom note in the family’s mailbox before dawn.
State police matched fingerprints on the note to Ross, who was in a database because of a 1999 drunken driving case. An indictment made public Friday kept the kidnapping charge and added four counts of predatory sexual assault against a child, along with charges of sexual abuse, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Ross pleaded not guilty in Saratoga County Court.
Source: NBC
