AUGUSTA — A reported kidnapping Saturday morning led to an intense search in Augusta and on the Maine Turnpike by the Maine State Police and other law enforcement agencies.
For nearly two hours, officers from Maine State Police Troop C, Troop D, and Troop G, Augusta Police, Hallowell Police and the Maine Warden Service worked to locate the phone from which the call came.
Maine State Police Cpl. Diane Vance said a juvenile female had reported via a mobile phone around 10 a.m. that her boyfriend had locked her in the trunk of a car and was taking her to Logan International Airport in Boston.
Vance said that when the SUV was located in Gray, it was driven by the 17-year-old girl’s father, with whom she was upset.
“Basically, it was a domestic situation,” Vance said.
While law enforcement officials started their search for the vehicle, Vance said she called the number repeatedly, but the girl didn’t answer her phone.
The search started just south of the Civic Center Drive exit on Interstate 95. Vance said because of the exigent circumstances, troopers pinged the phone to try to locate the caller. At that point, officers from Augusta and Hallowell helped in the search, and a pilot from the Maine Warden Service who was already in the air joined the effort.
Working with Sprint, the Maine State Police were able to find another phone associated with the girl’s phone. Vance said that was the girl’s mother, who was in Georgia.
“She said she was aware her husband and her daughter were not getting along, but she wasn’t aware the daughter had called the police,” Vance said.
The father and daughter had been visiting a relative at Colby College and were returning home to Georgia via Logan International.
Vance said the mother was able to contact her husband, who was able to meet a trooper in Gray.
“She was spoken to by the trooper, and she got the point that what she did was wrong,” Vance said. “She was very receptive.”
The girl was not charged.
“A lot of things reported aren’t what they first appear to be. Maybe they are not as egregious, or it’s something minor that turns out to be something major,” Vance said.
In this case, she said, there was a successful resolution after a coordinated effort.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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