Law enforcement agents don’t know why a man tried to kidnap a three-year-old girl Thursday night. Vanessa Ruiz reports from Newhall for NBC4’s News at Noon on Friday, Jan. 9, 2015.
Detectives' markings show where potential fingerprints were detected on the window through which a little girl was taken from her own home in Southern California Thursday night.
She was rescued by her uncle and father from a man with no apparent connections to the family, sheriff's deputies said.
The girl's parents were too exhausted from the experience to speak to NBC4 reporters, neighbors said, but her aunt and uncle spoke about the attempted crime that rattled their family.
"Yeah, I think it is crazy, but it just happens. I guess it happened to us this time," said Adriana, an aunt of the girl who didn't give her last name. "But we're fine ... everything's good."
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies were called just before 7 p.m. Thursday with a report that someone had snatched a 3-year-old through a window in her home in Newhall, in the 24000 block of Arch Street.
Ethan Odom, 37, allegedly snatched the girl and ran down an alley way. Family members heard the commotion and chased after him.
"I ran from that corner, I was running and I stopped right here and that's when I saw the suspect over there," said Jesus, the uncle, who didn't give his last name.
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He told the man he was the girl's father to get her back, before her real father pinned him to the ground before police came.
Odom has no apparent connection to the family, according to deputies, who are still investigating a motive for what they're calling a completely random act.
Odom, from Saugus, is now in police custody and has been charged with one count of attempted kidnapping. He is being held on $150,000 bail.
