Relief came this weekend for a Bronx family when two teen girls who went missing this month were found safe in Poughkeepsie Friday, after they said they were both abducted and held captive at a Route 9 hotel.
A man in his 20’s has been taken into custody, however, his alleged accomplice — described to be an older woman — remains at large.
On Thursday, according to police sources, one of the girls Scarlett Rivera, 13, walked into a Poughkeepsie restaurant and asked wait staff to contact the authorities because she had just escaped the Red Roof Inn on South Road where she had been held captive.
Police sources told the Bronx Times that the 13 year old and her foster sister Mariah Sanchez were taken on April 19 and held captive by a man in his 20s and an older woman, who also had a pit bull in the hotel room. Rivera was able to contact her mother before escaping the hotel, giving her directions to the restaurant before authorities took the girl to safety.
On Friday afternoon, her foster sister was found in the hotel, but the girls’ captors had all but fled the scene when authorities arrived.
Rivera and Sanchez had been reported missing by family members after they failed to return home from school on April 19.
The NYPD and the NYC Administration for Children’s Services are currently conducting a joint investigation and no arrest or further information on the whereabouts of the woman alleged to have been involved with the girls’ abduction are known.
Reach Robbie Sequeira at rsequeira@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4599. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
