Charlotte Sena abduction: Small-town cop played pivotal role in miracle rescue

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A heavily intoxicated Craig Nelson Ross Jr. sped around another car in downtown Saratoga Springs around midnight on a September Tuesday in 1999, crossing the double yellow lines and yapping away on a cellphone.

Officer Kristen VanWert, who had eight years on the job and was the daughter of the department’s first female police lieutenant, flipped on her lights and tried to stop his swerving blue 1986 Ford pickup, according to an arrest report obtained by Fox News Digital.

When he finally stopped in a parking lot off Ballston Avenue, VanWert approached the driver-side window and could smell the booze on his breath.

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“He was continuing his conversation even after he had pulled over,” James Montagnino, the public safety commissioner for the city of Saratoga Springs, told Fox News Digital. 

Ross ignored her command to hang up and shut off the car. So, she reached over and took the keys herself, picking up the strong scent of alcohol on his breath, according to the document.

“She asked him to step out for a field sobriety test, and he said to her, basically, ‘I’ll fail the test anyway. You don’t have to do the test. I know I’m drunk.'”

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Ross was 22 at the time, and police later recorded his blood alcohol level at .21%, more than double the legal limit at the time, which was .10%, compared to .08% today.

An encounter almost exactly 24 years later led to the harrowing rescue of an abducted 9-year-old girl named Charlotte Sena Monday, whom Ross is accused of snatching off her bicycle at a nearby state park and holding for ransom.

Read Craig Ross’ 1999 DWI arrest report (Mobile users go here)

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“This case really kind of underscores is the necessity of having a well-trained, well-funded police department at the local level,” Montagnino said. “It’s the little things in policing that make all the difference.”

VanWert has now been with the department 32 years, he said, and she’s now the senior patrol officer. Half of the city’s police force wasn’t even born when she first put on the uniform, according to the commissioner.

State police were standing guard at the Sena family home early Monday as her family remained at the campsite where she had last been seen. A “suspicious” vehicle pulled up, and the driver slipped something into the mailbox.

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The trooper on guard, feeling something off, went to take a look at it and found it was a ransom note, police told Fox News Digital.

The officer called in a description of the suspect vehicle, and forensic investigators began testing the document. The first set of prints they checked it against were not a match, Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a news briefing Monday. But the second turned out to be a match for Ross. Despite a plea deal that reduced Ross’s 1999 charges to a minor infraction, a caveat in New York law specific to drunken driving cases meant his fingerprints would remain on file. 

State police and federal authorities rushed in tactical teams, some of them landing by helicopter at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, a large amphitheater down the road from Ross’ mother’s house, where they soon rescued Charlotte from a camper in the backyard.

Neighbors told Fox News Digital they heard multiple flash bangs go off around 6:30 p.m. State police and the FBI rushed in. They arrested Ross and rescued Charlotte, who was reunited with her family at a hospital that evening.

“Even people in law enforcement who understand the risks involved in cases like this and the odds against a good resolution really breathed the collective sigh of relief here,” Montagnino said. “It’s just something that’s almost like a dream come true — that the child is safe and back home.”

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Ross is being held without bail at the Saratoga County Jail in Ballston Spa.

Ross’s mother Joan, who owned the Milton parcel where Charlotte was rescued, shouted at reporters to “get off my property now,” Thursday from behind a closed door.

Her double-wide trailer is just a few yards from the camper where police say her son stuffed the girl in a cabinet for nearly two days.