Positivity: Text Message Helps Save Kidnapped Teen
In South Carolina, a kidnapped girl used her abductor’s wireless phone to assist in her own rescue (video at link):
Text Message Helps Save Kidnapped Teen
Suspected Kidnapper Charged With RapeUPDATED: 6:03 am PDT September 18, 2006
LUGOFF, S.C. — A kidnapped teenager used her captor’s cell phone to send a text message that may have saved her life, authorities said.
The suspected kidnapper, Vinson Filyaw, surrendered Sunday morning to police as he walked a highway about five miles from where investigators found the teenager.
Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said Filyaw had eluded police with an elaborate system of hideouts and bunkers since November 2005, when he was charged with criminal sexual conduct on a 12-year-old girl.
Police say Filyaw, 36, abducted the 14-year-old girl as she walked home from a school bus stop on Sept. 6.
Investigators arrested Filyaw in neighboring Richland County about 24 hours after rescuing the girl, who sent a text message to her mother on Filyaw’s phone while he was asleep Wednesday, McCaskill said. The sheriff said Filyaw woke up and the girl still had the phone, but she told him she was simply playing with the phone.
Investigators used cell towers to determine a general location of the phone and deputies began searching for Filyaw on Friday night. McCaskill said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker.
The girl was found Saturday about a mile from her home …..
With the new E911 technology, networks which are up to date can locate a caller to an exact address. I’ve done some testing of it for a cellular provider, and it does indeed work. She would need to call 911, as the data is routed only to the PSAP, in realtime, and only they have the technology to read it. Once word of this gets out, such rescues may become routine.
Comment by triticale — September 26, 2006 @ 9:29 pm
#1, that would be a very good thing.
Comment by TBlumer — September 26, 2006 @ 10:15 pm