OAN’s Abril Elfi
11:17 AM – Friday, October 6, 2023
New details have emerged on the alleged abductor of a 9-year-old girl who was missing and found in a cupboard of the suspect’s trailer.
According to media reports released on Wednesday, 46-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr., who was arrested in connection to the kidnapping of 9-year-old Charlotte Sena, had been previously arrested in 2017 for choking someone.
Reports from police stated that the alleged suspect had “applied pressure on the throat of the victim.”
Prosecutors charged Ross Jr. with “criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation,” a misdemeanor offense in New York, where the incident occurred.
The 46-year-old had been “released on his own recognizance” after being arraigned at the Moreu Town Justice Court.
Ross Jr. now remains in custody without bail in connection to the abduction of the 9-year-old girl.
According to authorities, Ross Jr. has pleaded not guilty and has invoked his fifth amendment.
Ross Jr. has also been under scrutiny of possible connections with the two kidnappings and murders of 18-year-old Jennifer Hammond and 19-year-old Christina White.
Saratoga County Sheriff’s Investigator Matthew Robinson, who is the lead investigator on the women’s unsolved murders, told the press that at this time they do not have information to indicate if Ross Jr. was involved in the murders.
“At this time, we have no information to indicate that he was or was not involved,” Robinson said. “There’s no, like, hot lead that says he’s our guy or anything like that.”
Robison added that the department was probing any “association [Ross] has with any major case in the area” as part of a “standard investigative step.”
Last week, Sena had mysteriously vanished after taking a solo bike ride near Moreau Lake State Park.
Ross Jr. “wrote a ransom letter with the intent to compel the payment of money as ransom for her.”
Since police were able to collect his finger prints from the ransom note, New York authorities were then able to run the prints in their identification system where it was traced back to a previous DUI charge from Ross Jr.
Sena was then found stuffed in a cupboard and supposedly discovered Ross Jr. in just his underwear.
Ross Jr. now faces a felony charge of first-degree kidnapping and remains in custody without bail in connection to the kidnapping of the 9-year-old girl.
A spokesperson for New York State Police reportedly told the press that more charges against Ross are expected to be filed in the coming days.
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