FL Amber Alert (1/19/05)

[linuxgeek]

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Kidnapper's Car Found in Georgia
Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 1/21/2005 12:45:54 PM

ATLANTA (AP) -- A car belonging to a convicted child molester who authorities say left Florida with an 11-year-old boy has been found in Bartow County in northwest Georgia.

Authorities say 42-year-old Frederick Fretz picked up Adam Kirkirt at Dunnellon Elementary School in Ocala, Florida, on Tuesday.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead says Fretz's car was found near Interstate 75. Bankhead says the FBI is leading the investigation.

 

[~*sunkyssed_kym*~]

I hope they get this bastard soon!

~kym~ hoping little Adam is ok

 

[morninggirl5]

They found the child. It was on the local news here this evening. They were showing the search continuing for Fretz.


http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=57796

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Well thank god he is physically safe at least. And hoping whatever dammage that was done to him emotionally can be overcome.

 

[linuxgeek]

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Adam Kirkirt Found Alive
Police Still Chasing Fretz Through Woods

POSTED: 12:03 pm EST January 21, 2005
UPDATED: 9:09 pm EST January 21, 2005
Adam Kirkirt, the 11-year-old Marion County boy who was the subject of a nationwide Amber Alert, has been found alive.

Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean made the announcement at about 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Police have set up a perimeter in a Georgia forest and they say they have Frederick Fretz, the man accused of taking Kirkirt from Central Florida, surrounded. SWAT teams, dogs, helicopters and police officers on the ground are in the area.

The boy was found in the same woods, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.

He was taken to a local hospital and preliminary reports indicate that he was not harmed.

Police found Fretz's white Chevrolet Lumina along Interstate 75 near Emerson, Ga., Friday morning.

Dean said Fretz went into a convenience store on Friday, saying his car broke down and he needed some bottles of water and candy bars.

Emerson is about 38 miles northwest of Atlanta. The car was parked along I-75 northbound at the exit 283 ramp.

Investigators said they were confident they would find Adam alive. One official with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the department had consulted with FBI profilers and based on Fretz's history, they thought the boy would not be physically harmed.

They thought he would be inclined to go camping with the boy, even though he did not have permission to do that.

NewsChannel 2's Raoul Martinez was with Adam's father when he heard the good news. He tearfully told his son that he loved him and that he was sorry.

"You should be sitting here at home," he said.

He watched the video of Adam's recovery live on NewsChannel 2.

"He looks good. He doesn't look like he's hurt," Ivert Kirkirt said.

Martinez asked him to describe the last couple of days.

"It was worse than dying -- not knowing if he was all right, hurt, safe or alive. I just want to tell everybody out there, don't trust your friends. Don't trust anybody. Keep your kids to yourself and keep them tied to your hip," he said.

The boy's mother was at police headquarters when they received word that Adam had been found alive. She talked to him on the phone moments after police had him in custody.

"It was only a few minutes. He's just kind of like, 'Hi, Mom.' You're kind of stumped because he sounds great. I said, 'How are you?' And he said, 'Fine.' I said, 'You're coming home. Did you think about me?' He was like, 'Yeah,'" said Dorraine Kirkirt.

She echoed Ivert Kirkirt's sentiments.

"He will not be out of my sight. I'm just going to hold him, hold him forever. He's a good boy, and I'm so happy that he's safe. That's all I cared about. I wanted my baby home" she said.

She also praised the system that led to her son's recovery.

"The Amber Alert is one of the best things this world came up with," she said.

Emerson Police Department Assistant Police Chief Mike Powell said he saw the car sitting along the exit ramp Thursday at about 10 a.m. He said no one in the police department knew about the Amber Alert.

On Friday morning, a resident called the police department and said the car along I-75 matched the description of a car seen in a television report about the Amber Alert. Powell said he went back to the car he had seen on Thursday, but the car was missing its license tag. The vehicle identification number was used to connect the car to the case, officials said.

Powell then called the FBI, and he said agents responded within 20 minutes. Powell said he stayed with the car until the FBI arrived.

He also said he saw quite a bit of antifreeze, which had leaked from the car. He said it was very apparent that the car "was limping along" on the interstate and broke down there on the exit ramp.

The car was taken to FBI headquarters in Atlanta for testing.

Kirkirt, 11, was last seen on Tuesday, leaving Dunnellon Elementary School with Fretz in the white Chevrolet Lumina.

Fretz, a convicted sex offender, was living with Kirkirt and his father, Ivert. Instead of returning to their mobile home in Ocala, Fretz left a phone message for the father.

"We're broke down, don't know where, don't want to spend the night in the frickin' car," the phone message said.

Police received close to 300 tips, including one from Hawaii. Police believe Fretz has an extensive criminal history and served five years in prison for sexually battering an 11-year-old boy.

Fretz served time with Ivert Kirkirt in the Marion County Jail last year. Then they became roommates, and Adam moved in in December. Sources said Fretz would sometimes take Adam camping.

Officials said they believed Adam was OK because of the "good relationship" Fretz has with the boy.

Dean made a plea to Fretz on Friday afternoon.

"The best thing for him to do right now, and for all concerned, is for him to drop Adam off at a McDonald's, at a convenience store, at any public place. Adam is 11. He'll know what to do. He'll know who to call. I urge Mr. Fretz to do that now," Dean said.

 

[linuxgeek]

This turned out a lot better than I was starting to expect.

 

[~*sunkyssed_kym*~]

*whew* Praise to all who brought this to an end!

~kym~ relieved Adam is safe

 

[JustSkye]

Oh my goodness! Thank God.

 

[BuffRudy]

They shoulda kept him in the forest, set the dogs on him & buried the body. Nobody woulda said a word. That sicko!!! I hope they put a boot on his throat when they arrested him!

 

[linuxgeek]

They shoulda kept him in the forest, set the dogs on him & buried the body. Nobody woulda said a word. That sicko!!! I hope they put a boot on his throat when they arrested him!

As far as I know they are still looking for the perp. But then, he may have found him and not put it out to the media yet.

Depending on how worried he is about going back to prison, he may opt for a quicker way out.

 

[estevie]

"It was only a few minutes. He's just kind of like, 'Hi, Mom.' You're kind of stumped because he sounds great. I said, 'How are you?' And he said, 'Fine.' I said, 'You're coming home. Did you think about me?' He was like, 'Yeah,'" said Dorraine Kirkirt.

"Did you think about me?"

What an odd thing to say.

 

[linuxgeek]

"Did you think about me?"

What an odd thing to say.

Does sound odd. But from a kid who has had who-knows-what said or done to him by the perp over the last couple days, it may be a very normal. As I understand it, acceptance by the parents is a big deal to most kids. If he has been led to believe he did anything they wouldn't approve of...

I think we have a at least couple people around here which would be able to say definitively.

 

[linuxgeek]

src

Article published Jan 22, 2005
Missing boy found
Police still searching for alleged abductor

OCALA - After three sleepless nights, Dorraine Kirkirt says she can now rest knowing her 11-year-old son Adam is safe.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Friday night, investigators combing the woods in the northwest Georgia town of Emerson found Adam Kirkirt unharmed, some 400 miles from home. The discovery of the boy was a happy chapter in a potentially tragic ordeal which started when Frederick Fretz, 42, allegedly abducted the boy after picking him up at Dunnellon Elementary School on Tuesday. Fretz, a convicted pedophile in Pennsylvania, befriended Adam's father, Ivert Kirkirt, when the two were incarcerated in the Marion County Jail last year. After they were released, the two moved into an Ocala mobile home together, where Adam came to stay in December so his mother could work two jobs.

Fretz was still on the run late Friday night. Investigators were searching 20 acres of woods where he is believed to be hiding.

Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean said some 200 law enforcement officers, including Bartow County, Ga., deputies, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and Marion County deputies who traveled to the town of 1,000 about 40 miles northwest of Atlanta, are closing in on Fretz.

"They've got him surrounded, they're closing in the perimeter. It's just a matter of time."
Dorraine Kirkirt said when she is reunited with her son today, "I'm just going to hold him, hold him tighter."

"I'm just so happy that he's safe. He's my baby, and I want him home. I cannot even describe how I feel, '' she said.

She said she talked to her son after he was found and "he sounded really good, he sounded happy."

"He wasn't scared," she said. "He made sure I knew he was OK. I thought that was pretty big of him actually."

Dorraine Kirkirt said she has not yet discussed with her son the events of the last three days.

"I did not ask him," she said. "I won't question my son, no matter what. He's been through enough right now. When he's ready he'll talk to me."

She said family members are descending on their Dunnellon home for a reunion today.
Ivert Kirkirt said when reunited with his son, he planned to "hug him to death." when they are reunited. He said he was at the Sheriff's Office for questioning and a polygraph test when he discovered his son was safe.

"I am happy, so happy. Family and friends have been calling. The phone is ringing off the hook," he said.

The last contact from either Fretz or Adam was a phone message Fretz left for Ivert Kirkirt Tuesday afternoon, saying his car had broken down somewhere along State Road 40 but giving no detailed location. Kirkirt called police around 7 p.m. and an Amber Alert was issued early Wednesday morning that Adam was missing and in danger.

Investigators set up a command center in the Marion County Sheriff's Office headquarters, searched campsites in the Ocala National Forest and sent out an alert to search campsites and truck stops across the country.

The first break in the investigation came around 10 a.m. Friday morning, when a motorist aware of the Amber Alert called Emerson Police and said an abandoned car near the off ramp at I-75 exit 328 matched the description of Fretz's white 1993 Chevrolet Lumina. Emerson police said the car had been there broken down since Thursday morning, but they did not act earlier because they were not aware of the Amber Alert. The car's radiator had failed and the vehicle broke down. Search dogs picked up two human scents but lost the trail at the road which crossed the interstate.

Still, Ivert Kirkirt said that brought him hope.

"I was really happy when they found the car, because I knew they could not have gotten far,'' he said.

Some eight hours later, a tip from a truck driver helped find Adam. The truck driver was traveling about two miles north of where the Lumina was found when he spotted a man walking along the tree line on the side of the roadway. He then passed an Amber Alert sign for the missing boy, realized the suspect from the sign was the man walking down the side of the road, and called law enforcement.

Search crews descended on the area and an FBI agent found Adam in a culvert about 300 yards from where Fretz was spotted. Paramedics checked him and he has no visible injuries. Dean said Adam had not eaten anything but candy bars in a day, but was otherwise in good health. He will return home with Marion County Sheriff's deputies today.

Dorraine Kirkirt said she has asked God for one thing in her life, that her son be found safe, and it was granted. She said even in the joy over her son's safe return, she thinks of the family of Megan Holden, the 19-year-old clerk who investigators say was abducted from a Tyler, Texas, Wal-Mart on Wednesday night and found shot to death Friday morning.

"I send my prayers to her family and express my sorrow," she said.

Fretz was convicted in 1991 of a sexual assault on an 11-year-old boy in Pennsylvania. He registered as a sex offender in that state and later when he moved to Arizona. But he did not register when he moved to Florida, a third-degree felony.

Last year the Ocala Police Department arrested him for misdemeanor domestic battery, a charge which was later dropped, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, a charge to which he pleaded guilty. Ocala Police did a check for active warrants when he was arrested and found none. After 56 days in jail, Fretz bonded out without the Sheriff's Office running a records check which would have shown his conviction for sexual assault on a child and he would have been charged with failure to register as a sex offender.

Dean said while active warrant searches are run on anyone arrested, full criminal record checks were run only on convicted inmates nearing the end of a sentence, not on those who were about to bail out. He has said he changed that procedure since Fretz slipped through detection and now has criminal checks run when inmates are booked into the jail.

"Everything is going to be ahead of time, instead of at the end of the incarceration," Dean said.

He also said he believed there needed to be changes in laws governing the registration of sex offenders and predators. In Florida, in it is the sex offender's responsibility to register with the Florida Department of law enforcement and the sheriff's office in the county where they live.

"Here we are in Florida, with such a transient population, and we have to rely on the good will and honesty of some other state's ex offender that they will register when they move here," Dean said.

For the general public, the Internet is often a useful search tool for finding sex offenders. But Fretz, while registered as an offender in Arizona and Pennsylvania, is not listed on either state's online registry.

Dorraine Kirkirt said she met Fretz only once, knew her husband had met him in jail and was concerned about him spending time with her son. With Ivert Kirkirt on house arrest for violation of probation on an aggravated battery conviction, Fretz would take Adam fishing and camping.

"I know this man tried to be my son's friend," Dorraine Kirkirt said. "As an adult, I don't believe in it. He is a man with an 11-year-old child."

 

[estevie]

Does sound odd. But from a kid who has had who-knows-what said or done to him by the perp over the last couple days, it may be a very normal.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it sounds like she asked it of him.

Seems a rather odd question to ask your child.

Anyway, I'm happy he is safe now.

 

[linuxgeek]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it sounds like she asked it of him.

Seems a rather odd question to ask your child.

Anyway, I'm happy he is safe now.

ah, I see what you are saying now. Apparently my reading wasn't doing too well.

 

[morninggirl5]

I just watched a live report on the news. They reported that Adam led the police to a campsite yesterday. They haven't found Fretz yet and have expanded the search to include all of North Georgia.

 

[linuxgeek]

Cool. With them having the campsite to work with as a starting point, unless there has been heavy rains, the dogs probably can track right too him if he is still in the woods.

Now that Adam is actually home, I doubt the FL media will carry much unless Fretz is caught.

 

[morninggirl5]

Cool. With them having the campsite to work with as a starting point, unless there has been heavy rains, the dogs probably can track right too him if he is still in the woods.

Now that Adam is actually home, I doubt the FL media will carry much unless Fretz is caught.

I don't think they're having much luck in their search. They said they had sent part of the searchers home and expanded the perimeter. It sounded like they think he could have made it to the interstate and hitched a ride at some point.

 

[linuxgeek]

that bytes. Hopefully he will get recognized.

 

[~*sunkyssed_kym*~]

with a mug like his, he won't be hard to recongnise
http://www.sheriff.marioncountyfl.org/pio/releases/011905_files/image004.jpg

~kym~ *shudder*

 

[morninggirl5]

From the Atlanta Journal - Constitution

Suspect in child abduction arrested in Cartersville

Associated Press
Published on: 01/23/05
CARTERSVILLE —

A convicted sex offender wanted for kidnapping an 11-year-old boy from his school in Florida was arrested in Cartersville Sunday, two days after the boy was found safe.

Frederick Fretz, 42, was apparently hitchhiking along Main Street near Interstate 75, authorities said. Police say Fretz picked up the boy at Dunnellon Elementary School in Dunnellon, Fla., last Tuesday and headed north.

Emerson Police Sgt. Mike Powell said a person phoned police Sunday afternoon with a tip that Fretz appeared to be hitchhiking on the side of the road. Fretz was arrested without incident at about 2:30 p.m. and was being held in the Bartow County Jail, Powell said.

Fretz's drive with the boy ended when his car stalled on an exit ramp off Interstate 75, just north of Atlanta. The discovery of the abandoned car Friday triggered the search for Kirkirt, which ended less than 12 hours later. Emerson police received a call that day when Fretz and the boy went to a store to buy a gallon of water and some candy, Powell said.

The boy was found about two miles from the car, and ran toward police as Fretz fled into the woods and eluded police.

 

[linuxgeek]

good to know

 

[linuxgeek]

Looks like he will face primarily federal charges for this since he crossed state lines. Main charges at the state level will be parole violations.