REPORT OF LATEST ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION IS ‘UNFOUNDED’
Police now say that the report of an attempted abduction at Kasuun Elementary School is not true.
“After a thorough investigation by detectives, the report of this incident has been determined to be unfounded,” the police wrote this morning.
The incident was reported to have happened on Friday, when a group of friends were on the playground. Anchorage police reported it as an attempted child abduction and asked the community to be on the lookout for the suspect.
Kasuun is a mid-hillside neighborhood school, where children often play on the equipment.
The original report said that a group of girls reported being approached by man, who they said appeared intoxicated, and who was wearing a yellow zip-up jacket, red t-shirt with a blue circle on it, blue jeans, and a baseball cap that had a football team logo. The man grabbed and pulled at an arm of one of the girls. “When the group of girls began to scream,” police wrote, “the suspect released the girl’s arm and fled into a nearby wooded area on foot.”
SPENARD, KOTZEBUE CASES
The news reports of a possible child abductor at a local elementary school jangled the nerves of parents, especially coming one day after a drug-addled man invaded a daycare center in the Spenard neighborhood, where more than 100 children were present.
It took police an hour and a half to respond to that incident, and caused parents and the neighborhood to be alarmed at the slow response time and the low priority police seemed to place on child safety.
Anchorage residents have been up in arms over property crimes, but now are especially sensitive to the dangers posed to children.
[Read: Video of daycare intruder]
Meanwhile, in Kotzebue, a massive search has been underway for a 10-year-old girl who didn’t return home after going to a local playground. The girl has been missing since Thursday, when she was last seen at the Rainbow Park playground.
As many as 50 people and two Coast Guard helicopters have been involved in the search. Kotzebue is a small community of about 3,200 people, most of whom know each other. The Alaska State Troopers are coordinating the search.