20-year-old Thomas Dewald is behind bars after he snuck into a home, kidnapped a 4-year-old child from her bedroom, bound her ankles, wrists, and hands with tape and kept her into a wooden trunk.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by People, the man said to officers that he had searched the neighborhood for kids playing in their yards unsupervised.
He was charged with multiple felony counts including criminal trespass, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, burglary, and kidnapping.
The 4-year-old girl managed to escape only hours after she was kidnapped. She was found along a roadway near Dewald’s grandparent’s house, about 2 and a half miles from her home.
Pennsylvania State Trooper Megan Frazer told People: “She escaped but we don’t know how and all the circumstances with it yet. There are a lot of unanswered questions.”
The girl’s father reported to police that his child was missing. He said he put her to bed around 7:30 but when he checked on her around 3 am, he noticed that the door to her room was open and the front door was also half closed.
The father first searched around the house before calling the cops. Officers started searching the area for the child who was eventually found at 10 am.
Dewald’s grandmother told police that she had gone into his room to check if he fixed the bed but she “heard what sounded like a baby crying.”
The complaint stated: “The female related the crying seemed to come from the wall with the air conditioning unit, in his bedroom.”
She told cops she had no idea where the crying was coming from as Dewald had already gone to work. Police searched the area and found a large wooden chest under the air conditioning unit in the man’s bedroom.
“Several large strips of long blonde hair (similar to the hair on the [victim]) was located inside the wooden chest in the bedroom,” stated the complaint.
Dewald came home and admitted she abducted the child. He also admitted he entered her bedroom through an unlocked front door and stayed there for an hour before he took her.
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