A fingerprint left on a ransom note led police to the 47-year-old man who kidnapped 9-year-old Charlotte Sena from an upstate New York park on Saturday.
Craig N. Ross Jr. was arrested on Tuesday and charged with first-degree kidnapping, according to reports.
He is accused of kidnapping Charlotte as she rode her bicycle at Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County, New York on Saturday evening.
Ross kept Charlotte locked in a cabinet in his camper behind his mother’s house in Ballston Spa, New York, police said.
The FBI joined state police in the hunt for Charlotte and her kidnapper. The family home was kept under surveillance while Charlotte’s parents, David and Trisha Sena, remained at a camp site.
Undercover officers spotted a car approaching the family home at 4:20 a.m. Monday.
“He literally drove up to the family’s mailbox, assuming they were not home, 4:20 in the morning, opens the mailbox and inserts the ransom note, leaving a critical piece of evidence behind – his own fingerprint,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The governor said the drop off “happened very quickly” and officers were unable to follow Ross.
Police got a hit in a fingerprint database that linked the ransom note to a DWI arrest for Ross in 1999 in Saratoga, New York.
The State Police Special Operations Response Team and an FBI Regional SWAT team surrounded the Ballston Spa home and made a “dynamic entry” into the camper.
Police used their boots on Ross when he resisted arrest inside the camper.
“[Ross] did give our SWAT people some resistance in there,” State Police Col. Richard Allen told reporters. “He did suffer some very minor injuries.”
Charlotte was found in a cabinet, the governor said. “She knew that she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.”
Ross is being held without bond at the Saratoga County Correctional Facility.
