The incident was alleged to have occurred more than a year ago, but the complaint against 46-year-old Craig N. Ross Jr. was filed this summer.
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Police closed sex abuse probe of kidnapping suspect last month
The suspect in the
kidnapping of a 9-year-old girl from a state park campground last week had been the subject of a recent State Police investigation into allegations that he had sexually abused a female family acquaintance when she was about 12 years old.
The incident was alleged to have occurred more than a year ago, but the complaint against 46-year-old Craig N. Ross Jr. was filed this summer. State Police closed that investigation last month without filing any charges against Ross, who had denied the girl’s allegations, according to three sources briefed on the investigation.
The new information about Ross comes amid scrutiny of the actions of a state trooper who was guarding the residence of the 9-year-old girl’s family when the suspect in her abduction dropped off a ransom note before dawn on Monday — and then drove away in his pickup truck without being stopped, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Those sources said there has been no allegation that the trooper mishandled the incident, but the agency is examining whether Ross, who has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, should have been arrested at that moment. The ransom note allegedly asked for $50,000 and Ross may have made the girl write it, according to another source briefed on the investigation.
At the news conference, neither the governor nor State Police officials explained why if the trooper at the house observed Ross putting a note in the mailbox that he didn’t pursue and stop his truck. The ransom note would have provided enough evidence to take Ross immediately into custody, police sources said.
It’s unclear what unfolded with Ross during the 14 hours that elapsed between the ransom note being dropped off and his arrest. Although he has been charged with first-degree kidnapping and is being held in Saratoga County jail, the investigation is continuing and focused on trying to confirm as many details of his planning and actions both before and after the alleged abduction.