FIRST ON FOX: One of Heather Knight’s worst fears as a parent became reality on Jan. 1, when her daughter narrowly escaped an alleged kidnapping attempt.
Yordy Centeno Melchor, a 31-year-old Mexican national who was previously deported six times, is charged with second-degree attempted kidnapping and is being held on a $100,000 bond in Elmore County, Alabama, in connection with the incident.
Knight’s teenage daughter was at a Holtville grocery store “putting away a cart when a vehicle pulled up to her,” and the suspect “was trying to speak to her, but she couldn’t understand him because of the language barrier,” Knight told Fox News Digital.
“She had a little distance between him,” Knight continued. “Well, then he held out his phone and on his phone it just said … ‘You can trust me. If you’ll get in my car … I’ll give you $200.'”
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The teenager initially thought the suspect needed help, but when he apparently pulled up the “notes” section on his phone and typed a message offering her $200 to get in his vehicle, she knew “something was up,” her mother said.
As the interaction was taking place, a local youth pastor intervened, and Melchor allegedly fled the scene. The Elmore County Sheriff’s Office issued a be-on-the-lookout alert for the area.
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Days later in a county 30 miles north of Elmore, officials say they stopped a vehicle resembling the one involved in the alleged attempted kidnapping. They ran its license plate and determined that it matched the suspect’s vehicle. The driver, Melchor, also matched the suspect’s description, police said.
Officials identified the suspect and his prior deportations. They initially said Melchor was deported five times, but an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told the National News Desk that Melchor had actually been deported six times since 2013 and twice convicted in two federal cases.
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“We’re going to cooperate with ICE. We’re always going to cooperate with ICE,” Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin previously told Fox News Digital.
Knight remembers feeling fearful when the incident happened and says she did not know the suspect, wondering if he had been watching her family.
“We almost had to face one of the most horrific things a parent could possibly face.”
“When it happened, before I found out he was illegal, I was just worried about her,” Knight said. “It was a mix between thankfulness that she was OK and worry. OK, who is this person? We don’t know who he is. Is he going to come after her again? Is he going to come after our family? Is this just somebody who drove by? Or is it somebody who had been watching our family?”
But when she found out Melchor had been living in the United States illegally after previously being deported six times, Knight felt “angry.”
“I’m an extremely compassionate person. But … I was beyond angry,” she explained. “There’s no amount of words of how angry I was. All I could think was how horrific it could have been, how horrible this is for other people who have experienced this. And like I stated before, it’s hard enough when it’s our own people we’re trying to take care of and help and get justice for or from. But when the possibilities are endless of who these people are, where they come from, it’s scary.”
Knight is thankful to local law enforcement and her community members that look out for each other.
“I’m thankful that I live in a community that supports one another. And I had someone there that noticed something was off and was willing to help,” she said. “I know if we would have lived in a larger community, that may not have been a possibility. But our people here in our community, we watch out for each other. We take care of each other. And I’m extremely thankful for that.”
Melchor has ties to San Antonio as well as Shelby County in Alabama. He was known to drive between those two areas visiting family, the sheriff said.
The suspect may face additional charges if authorities identify any other victims.
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