Community Corner

Spotsylvania Child Abduction Update: Active Search Ends

The Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office has ended an active search for a boy that a witness reported seeing abducted on July 4.

"After following up on hundreds of leads and phone tips for several days, the Sheriff’s Office has not yet received any calls of a missing child and no similar reports have been taken anywhere in the state during this time period," according to a release.

At 1:40 p.m. Thursday, the Spotsylvania County 911 center received a call from a witness reporting an abduction in progress at Holleybrooke Drive in the county.

A team of some 60-law enforcement professionals from the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and the FBI participated in the search for a missing boy who a witness said was pulled against his will into a van Thursday.

The boy was described as white, slender, about 12 years old, about 5-foot-2 and 70 to 80 pounds with light brown hair. He was wearing a red-and-white horizontally striped pullover shirt with dark blue cargo shorts.

Full Release:

The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office responded to an E-911 call on a possible abduction at approximately 1:40pm, on July 4th. Witness information related that a male subject, driving a blue work van, stopped and forced a young male, approximately 12 years of age, into the van and sped away.

The Sheriff’s Office responded with a full field investigation and recovery effort, focusing on the description of the child and the suspect vehicle. A command post was established within a short time and members of the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division headed up a massive investigative search for both the identity of the child and his safe return, if the abduction was confirmed. Sheriff Roger L. Harris personally made this a high priority investigation and has monitored the progress, minute by minute for the entire operational period. Sheriff Harris noted, “We take the report of any missing child extremely serious, and we will give this our full attentions”. Multiple law enforcement and support agencies from surrounding jurisdictions sent manpower to assist in the effort. Those agencies included the Virginia State Police, Fredericksburg Police Department, Stafford County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue division, the Spotsylvania Fire and Rescue and Emergency services personnel. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI), joined the investigation at the request of Sheriff Harris. The operation was assigned “tip line” phone numbers for the public to call, should they have any information to assist law enforcement.

The investigative efforts continued for the next 48 hours, with detectives and special agents following up on tips, leads and interviews of witnesses, neighborhood canvasses, as well as a myriad of other technical and investigative techniques, utilized in the event that an abduction was confirmed. The Command and Emergency Operations Center at the Public Safety Complex was in operation 24 hours a day to continue the sorting and handling of assignments and leads.

After following up on hundreds of leads and phone tips for several days, the Sheriff’s Office has not yet received any calls of a missing child and no similar reports have been taken anywhere in the state during this time period. Detectives from the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office will continue to follow any leads that are generated, however the Command Center operations will be transitioned to the routine staffing levels, commencing today.

Sheriff Harris offered a special “thank you” to the members of the print, radio television and social media who got the message out to the public so quickly. “I feel very confident that with the help of our friends in the media, we were able to make everyone aware of the situation and garner the hundreds of tips, phone calls and emails generated by the citizens in our communities to assist us in this team effort”.

The Sheriff’s Office still encourages anyone with knowledge of the possible identity of the child or the owner of the blue work van, with the repair spot on the rear door to call the tip-line, set up for this case. The numbers are 540-582-7287 and 540-582-2535.


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