Thread: Missing 13-Year-Old Norwalk Girl Found in St. Louis

http://www.norwalkcitizen-news.com/local/ci_3941579

Missing 13-Year-Old Norwalk Girl Found in St. Louis
By Teresa Errico

At midnight Wednesday, a 13-year-old Norwalk girl was expected to be reunited with her parents after being missing since late Saturday or early Sunday and being in St. Louis.

According to police, the girl's parents discovered her missing from their home around 6:20 a.m. Sunday and alerted the Police Department. Later that day, a call was placed from the girl to a friend and traced to New York City, thus prompting an interstate investigation, police said. When the girl had not been found by Monday, both the Police Department's Youth Division and the FBI in Bridgeport became involved.

Police Sgt. Steve E. Couture led the investigation in conjunction with FBI Special Agent Sean O'Malley, as well as the New Haven FBI office and the U.S. Marshals Service.

With assistance from patrol officers and special agents, and leads and cooperation from both the girl's family and other contacts, the girl was discovered to be in the company of 21-year-old Erik Sanchez of 10 Lexington Ave., police said. Sanchez has worked for the past three years for the girl's family's landscaping business. Police presumed the girl disappeared from her house with Sanchez on Saturday night without her parents' consent.

At 2 a.m. Tuesday a command post was established at police headquarters, with six FBI agents and six Norwalk police officers fanning out. A hang-up call was made by the girl to another friend on Tuesday at 3:45 p.m., this time being traced to a pay phone at the Amtrak Trailways in Indianapolis. Police determined that Sanchez and the girl had taken a Grey-hound Line bus headed west.

Although the possibility that the two were heading to Mexico was considered, there were no bus routes to Mexico from New York with stops in Indiana, police said. With further leads, a bus route to Pasadena, Calif., was considered next. The first call from the girl had been made moments before a Greyhound bus left New York City en route to California, and the second call was made within five minutes of the same bus' scheduled arrival in Indianapolis, police said.

When the FBI's search for the pair in Indianapolis turned up inconclusive, agents in Missouri were notified to meet the bus at its next stop in St. Louis. When the agents boarded the bus, they found both the girl and Sanchez, police said.

On Wednesday at 5 p.m. two members of the Norwalk Police Department arrived in St. Louis to escort the girl home to Connecticut.

Sanchez is being held in St. Louis on federal kidnapping charges. He also faces additional charges in Connecticut, and his status as a citizen is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, police said.

Originally Posted by Teresa Errico

Sanchez is being held in St. Louis on federal kidnapping charges. He also faces additional charges in Connecticut, and his status as a citizen is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, police said.

So is he gonna be eligible for "catch and release," and free to do it again? After all, most senators consider him to be decent and hard working!

Why don't these people ever pick on politicians kids when they do something like this? I guess they know better.

Sounds to me like her family's lanscape business hires illegals.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/lo ... -headlines

Kidnapping suspect will be returned to state

By Matt Breslow
Staff Writer

June 20, 2006

A Norwalk man arrested on a federal kidnapping charge after being caught with a missing 13-year-old Norwalk girl on a bus in St. Louis will be returned to Connecticut.

Erik Sanchez, 21, of 10 Lexington Ave., waived his right to a removal hearing and a detention hearing yesterday at federal court in St. Louis, according to the U.S. attorney's office for Connecticut.

U.S. Magistrate Judge David Noce ordered Sanchez, who remains in federal custody, transported to Connecticut by U.S. marshals.

Sanchez is charged with kidnapping a person under 18. He faces 20 years to life in federal prison if convicted, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Norwalk police Deputy Chief Mark Palmer yesterday said the department is working with the FBI to determine appropriate charges for Sanchez and whether he will be prosecuted on the state level.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri said she did not know when Sanchez will be returned to Connecticut.

Sanchez was arrested last Tuesday at a St. Louis bus terminal, about 60 hours after the 13-year-old girl's family reported her missing to Norwalk police. Federal agents found Sanchez and the girl, who were traveling under assumed names, on a bus headed for Pasadena, Calif.

Agents arrested Sanchez and took the victim into protective custody unharmed, according to the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two detectives from the Norwalk Police Department's Youth Bureau flew to St. Louis to accompany the teenager to Norwalk.

Norwalk police have said the girl may may have made the trip willingly. Sanchez reportedly worked for her father at a landscaping company.

Soon after the girl's disappearance, investigators became convinced she was traveling west with Sanchez -- possibly to Mexico.

The girl's parents told authorities they had last seen her at about 10:30 p.m. June 10, according to an FBI affidavit. The family reported the girl missing at about 6:30 a.m. the following day.

The affidavit states the adolescent called a friend June 11 and said she was all right but would not say where she was.

Sanchez was reportedly heard in the background telling the girl not to provide any information.

Sanchez's uncle told authorities he received a call from his nephew June 11, according to the affidavit. Sanchez asked for advice about what to do with the girl and said he was afraid of getting into trouble, the uncle reported.

The uncle said he directed Sanchez to return the girl to her home.

Authorities caught Sanchez after determining a phone call to one of the girl's friends the afternoon of June 13 was placed from a pay phone at a bus and train station in Indianapolis.

A Pasadena-bound bus had arrived at the station from New York City minutes earlier, police said. Sanchez was arrested at its next stop in St. Louis.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/lo ... -headlines

Man's charge changed in disappearance of teenage girl

By Matt Breslow
Staff Writer

July 15, 2006

BRIDGEPORT -- A Norwalk man accused of fleeing with a 13-year-old Norwalk girl last month has been charged with transporting a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity.

Erik Sanchez, 21, of Lexington Avenue, initially was charged with kidnapping a person under 18, a different federal offense, after being caught with the girl June 13 at a St. Louis bus terminal.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Filan Jr. moved to dismiss the kidnapping charge yesterday in Sanchez's first appearance at U.S. District Court since he returned to Connecticut. Sanchez would have faced 20 years to life in prison if convicted of that charge.

Transporting a minor to engage in sexual activity carries a penalty of five to 30 years in prison, Filan said. He did not explain the change in charges and requested that an affidavit filed yesterday by the government be sealed.

Sanchez, who was assisted by an interpreter, was not asked to enter a plea during his brief appearance.

"Obviously, this is a very serious charge," U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly Fitzsimmons said.

Filan said the government filed a motion to keep Sanchez jailed without bond, pending trial, because he presents a flight risk and danger to the community.

But Filan said federal immigration authorities placed a detainer on Sanchez -- meaning he can't be released -- because he is in the country illegally.

Fitzsimmons said Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, has a right to have his country's government notified that he is in custody.

Sanchez was arrested about 60 hours after the 13-year-old girl's family reported her missing to Norwalk police.

Federal authorities say they found Sanchez and the girl on a bus bound for Pasadena, Calif., traveling under assumed names. Investigators believe they may have been headed to Mexico.

Detectives from the Norwalk Police Department's Youth Bureau flew to Missouri to bring home the girl, who was unharmed.

Fitzsimmons appointed federal public defender Paul Thomas to represent Sanchez. She scheduled a probable cause hearing for July 28, which will be canceled if a grand jury indicts Sanchez.

Man gets 5-year sentence for sex with girl


June 22, 2007, 1:03 PM EDT

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) _ A 22-year-old man was sentenced to five years in prison Friday for taking his boss's 13-year-old daughter across state lines to have sex, federal authorities said.

Erik X. Sanchez, a citizen of Mexico who last lived in Norwalk, pleaded guilty in April to transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

On June 11, 2006, Norwalk Police received a call from parents who reported that their 13-year-old girl daughter was missing. They had last seen her the night before.

Three days later, Sanchez was arrested at a bus station in St. Louis with the girl, authorities said.

At the time, he worked for the landscaping company owned by the girl's family.

He admitted that he took the girl from Connecticut to New York and engaged in illegal sexual activity, authorities said.

The pair boarded a bus in New York City with the intention of going to California, where they would live with Sanchez's sister.

Authorities learned from one of the girl's friends that she had telephoned from New York.

FBI agents were able to trace telephone calls she made to a bus station in Indiana and learned the bus was headed to St. Louis. On June 14, agents stopped the bus, boarded it and arrested Sanchez, prosecutors said.

Sanchez has been detained since his arrest in Missouri. Sanchez, who is in the United States illegally, will be deported to Mexico after his jail term, prosecutors said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ ... 8123.story

Two things:

1. More family values.

And

2. I hate to sound mean, but her parents got exactly what they deserved for hiring illegals in the first place. Hopefully, the police and FBI will send them the bill for their services, make them pay that out of unfair profits they skimmed off the top by hiring an illegal instead of an American and then take them to court for hiring him in the first place.

OH YES WE NEED MORE OF THESE KIND OF PEOPLE AS CITIZENS. HARD WORKERS, GREAT FAMILY VALUES. YES LETS HAND OUT THE VISAS

Originally Posted by redpony353

OH YES WE NEED MORE OF THESE KIND OF PEOPLE AS CITIZENS. HARD WORKERS, GREAT FAMILY VALUES. YES LETS HAND OUT THE VISAS

Yeah, they work sooo much harder than Americans, and their family values are soooo much better than ours. Maybe they're right and we should just leave and let them have it all. After all, it was the illegal aliens who built this country and made it what it is today. Just like they helped make the countries they came from such a success.