Kidnapped 17-year-old victim held against her will in New York, Rialto Police Department helps reunite her with family

While the name of the 17-year-old female victim was not released, 24-year-old New York City resident Elijah Clark was arrested on charges for kidnapping, false imprisonment, injury to a minor, strangulation, assault on a police officer, and multiple weapons charges.

“It’s so important for our department to educate the public on personal safety so they aren’t victims. Cases like this are reasons why it’s important to work hand in hand with other agencies as we all have different resources and in this case the resources resulted in our detective bureau and crime analysis unit helping the victim return home to her family,” said Rialto Police Department Corporal Nic Parcher.

For months, the 17-year-old Rialto native had been in contact with Clark via the internet, and on April 30th, 2022 Rialto Police Department’s (RPD) Communications Center received a call from the family stating that the victim was missing. 

During that call, the parents shared they recently learned from their daughter’s friends that she had been conversing with Clark and when the female victim still hasn’t returned home on May 2nd, RPD’s Detective Agnes Watson took action.

While investigating the case, Watson was able to pull together information that led to the tracing of Clark’s cell phone number. 

Watson relentlessly made contact with Clark’s phone number via calling and even sent a text message, in which all attempts garnered no response. 

Finally, on May 5th at 1:14 PM, Watson received a response from the victim on Clark’s phone, stating that Clark was refusing to let her leave and she wanted to return home. 

At that moment, Watson contacted the New York Police Department (NYPD) alerting them of the kidnapping and shared what she believed was Clark’s home address.
While NYPD’s first attempt to locate the victim at Clark’s address was luckless, Watson requested that the NYPD check again as she felt the victim was being held against her will.

On May 6th, 2022 at 7:47 PM, NYPD’s Captain Awarro notified Watson that the victim had been rescued and that Clark was taken into custody. 

The 17-year-old was returned to her family on May 10th, 2022. 

And while this victim was fortunate to be returned home to her family, it’s hardly the outcome in other similar cases, and Parcher encourages teens and young adults to be mindful about who they are communicating with online. 

“Be wary about giving out personal information online, whether it’s a home address, the name of your school, or even a license plate photo. It can give a person an idea of where you live and a precise location of where to find you,” concluded Parcher. 

To learn more about the Rialto Police Department, visit rialtopolice.com.