Bronx Girl Whose Kidnapping Was Caught on Video Found Unharmed

A mother and her 16-year-old daughter were walking down a quiet street when out of nowhere a beige, four-door sedan stopped, and two men forcibly dragged the teenager, Karol Sanchez, into the vehicle.

For hours Tuesday, the video of the kidnapping, which took place Monday around 11:20 p.m. in the Melrose section of the Bronx, captivated New Yorkers.

Then came a surprising update: Police said Tuesday afternoon that they had found Sanchez, unharmed.

The details of what happened remained unclear, but police said she was found on the same block where she had been abducted. On Tuesday afternoon, Sanchez was being questioned by officers from the 40th Precinct, according to police.

Earlier Tuesday morning, police had released footage from a security camera near the scene and asked for the public’s help in solving the crime.

Police said the unsuspecting mother and her daughter were out for a stroll Monday night when the sedan, occupied by four men clad in black, stopped in front of 745 Eagle Ave. Two of the men, believed to be in their 20s, then got out of the vehicle and snatched the teenager.

When the mother tried to intervene, she was pushed to the ground, police said. She was not seriously injured.

The sedan immediately fled east on East 156th Street, police said.

Sanchez, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds, had last been seen wearing a dark blue short jacket, a white sweater, bluejeans and black sneakers, police said.

A family friend, Destiny David, 20, said news of the kidnapping had reverberated in the Sanchez family’s close-knit Honduran community.

“We all know each other,” David said over the phone. “We don’t know why they took her. We just want her to be found soon.”

A police official said the family was contemplating a move to their native Honduras but that Sanchez was adamant she wanted to remain in the United States. Investigators had been trying to determine if the potential move played a role in the kidnapping.

Reached by phone, an aunt said Sanchez, who lives with her mother in Dutchess County, New York, was in town for an appointment. The aunt, Idalmy Martinez, 56, said the family was desperately looking for answers. Martinez added that Sanchez’s father has not been part of her life for years.

“She is a very happy, calm person,” Martinez said. “She’s always with her mother. They are very close. She is always around us, her family. We don’t know why they would take her.”

The details of the kidnapping were so shocking that the Police Department’s chief of patrol, Fausto Pichardo, had asked the public for help identifying the men and locating Sanchez. “Have you seen Karol Sanchez?” Pichardo wrote on Twitter.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also used Twitter to publicize the security camera video that captured the attack.

Police issued an Amber Alert on Tuesday.

Sanchez’s kidnapping came just days after the deadly stabbing of Tessa Majors, a Barnard College freshman. The attacks on the two young women come at a time when the city is experiencing record low crime rates not seen since the 1950s.

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Rates for violent crime have remained relatively steady this year in the Bronx neighborhood where Sanchez was taken, which is patrolled by the Police Department’s 40th Precinct. There have been 10 murders there so far this year, compared with eight last year. Felony assaults also increased slightly, to 683 from 679.

Majors was walking through Morningside Park in Manhattan last week when she was attacked by three people and stabbed several times, police said.

A 13-year-old boy implicated himself in the attack last week and was expected to face charges Tuesday. Police said at least two other teenagers may have taken part in the crime.

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A man who works at a parking garage near where Sanchez was kidnapped said he gave additional surveillance video that captured part of the assault over to police.

“I’ve never seen something like that before,” said the man who did not want to identify himself. “It shocked me, you know. I have kids. I can’t imagine that happening to my kids.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .