PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Police say a Saskatchewan girl abducted from a playground last week was dropped off in a wooded area outside the city of Prince Albert.
Insp. Jason Stonechild says the eight-year-old girl walked from the woods to a nearby farm where the owner called police.
“RCMP officers and members from our service immediately attended to this farmyard where officers were able to confirm that we had located our subject of the Amber Alert,” Stonechild said Wednesday. “The victim was immediately taken to Victoria Hospital by our members for proper assessment.”
He says a canine unit followed the girl’s footsteps back to the woods to figure out where she had been abandoned. He wouldn’t say how far of a walk it was to the farm or how long the girl had been on her own.
An Amber Alert was issued July 4 after the girl disappeared from a Prince Albert school playground.
Police said the girl was playing by herself when a man entered the park. He was seen on video, obtained from the school, hanging around for about 15 minutes until the child left and he followed.
Police said he was seen talking to the girl against a school wall, then grabbed her and put her into the back seat of his car. He then climbed into the front and drove away.
She was found several hours later.
While police were at the farmyard, they received a call from a business in Prince Albert saying they had someone matching the suspect’s description, Stonechild said.
Officers immediately went to the business, which Stonechild wouldn’t identify, and arrested the suspect without incident.
Jared John Charles, who is 19 and who has also been identified as Jarrod Charles, is facing numerous charges, including kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault and abandoning a child.
Public assistance following the police department’s first Amber Alert was incredible and vital to the safe return of the girl, Stonechild said. People drove around looking for the girl and the suspect’s vehicle, he said.