(GREENSBORO, N.C.) — The search is on for a 22-year-old kidnapping suspect in North Carolina, though the missing 3-year-old kidnapping victim has been found safe.
The 3-year-old, Ahlora Ashanti Sample Lindiment, was found alive and well Thursday night after an Amber Alert was issued for the girl Wednesday, said Greensboro police.
The suspect in the case, whom police released surveillance photos of Thursday afternoon, was identified Friday as 22-year-old N’denezsia Monique Lancaster.
She is wanted on a first-degree kidnapping charge and anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000 or 911.
Ahlora was found safe when officials received a call just after 8 p.m. Thursday saying a girl was found in the Word of Faith Christian Center in Greensboro. The girl was able to tell the caller her mother’s first name, police said.
Ahlora was taken to the hospital and is doing well, police said at a press conference. She was identified and reunited with her family just before 10 p.m. Thursday.
“I’ve got 30 years in law enforcement and very seldom do we have this good of an outcome,” Greensboro Police Wayne Scott said.
Ahlora was reported missing at 6:33 p.m. Wednesday, the Greensboro Police Department said. The 3-year-old was playing outside an apartment at the time, police said.
Police said earlier they were looking to identify a woman seen on surveillance video near the scene. The chief called her the suspected abductor and said she was “in and around the playground sometime between 3 and 5 p.m.”
“She was out in that area acting very suspicious” and interacted with multiple adults and children before she was seen leaving with Ahlora, the chief said at a Thursday news conference.
Over 100 officers canvassed the area, searching every vacant business and apartment with 1 mile of the call, Scott said.
The FBI was involved in the search, police said.
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