COLORADO SPRINGS — While her family waited in agony and crime-scene investigators searched their Pueblo
home, a bruised and frightened 9-year-old took several courageous steps ahead of the man accused of abducting her 18 hours before.

Those steps led the girl, who had been kidnapped as she walked home from school Thursday afternoon, to be reunited with her family Friday morning reported The Denver Post.

Her alleged abductor, Jose Garcia, 29, of Pueblo, was arrested hours later at a Colorado Springs bus station. Steven Ryno said he would wait for his daughter on the sidewalk outside their home every day after school. She was seen leaving her school about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, but she never reached home.

The girl’s family reported her missing to the Pueblo Police Department that evening. About 3:15 a.m. Friday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert for the girl, spokesman Lance Clem said.

The child’s photo was immediately sent to law enforcement agencies and media outlets across the state. Radio stations and police frequencies hummed with a description of the petite girl and vague details about the vehicle she may have been riding in. About five Amber Alerts are issued each year in Colorado. Clem said each must fit certain criteria, including evidence that the child is in immediate danger.

Often, Amber Alerts are issued minutes after a law enforcement agency requests one from the CBI. The time lapse between when a child goes missing and when an alert is issued is usually because local law enforcement is working to see whether the case fits the criteria and ensuring the child did not leave on his or her own.

Friday morning, Ryno and the girl’s mother, Stephanie Cordova, waited while authorities searched their home. Yellow crime-scene tape was strung across the hallway leading to the girl’s room, and a hair sample was collected from her brush.

Miles to the north, a man spotted the girl and Garcia about 9 a.m. stranded on the side of the road near West Woodmen Road and Orchard Valley in Colorado Springs. The two front tires on the truck Garcia was driving were shredded, and there was additional damage to the exterior.
The man picked up the two and dropped them at a Circle K just off Interstate 25, said Barbara Miller, spokeswoman for the Colorado Springs Police Department.

There, the girl walked ahead of Garcia into the convenience store and asked a clerk — who noticed her bruises and two black eyes — to use the phone. Garcia entered the store as the girl was dialing 911 but quickly ran off. The Amber Alert was lifted and the girl was taken to a local hospital. Police would not comment on the extent of her injuries.
“I’m going to get my baby,” Ryno said before he and his family left to meet his daughter at the hospital.

Friday afternoon, the girl remained in the Colorado Springs hospital.
About 12:30 p.m. Friday, police released a photo of Garcia.
As Tia Martinez waited for her bus in Colorado Springs, she noticed a man wearing a dark hoodie pulled over his head. Then she saw an officer ask for his ID before putting Garcia in handcuffs. “It was almost like he was in disbelief it was happening,” Martinez said. “I felt both anger and gladness that they caught him for what he has been accused of.”

Source – The Denver Post