MILL CREEK – The reported abduction attempt of a sixth-grade girl just a few feet from her apartment and the attempted luring of another girl by the same man has some neighbors nervous for their children.
After hearing about the abduction attempt, Katherine Rose said she will think twice about letting her daughter play outside the Summer Mill Apartments in the 16500 block of North Road.
“The kids always play out in the cul-de-sac. It’s away from the street. Now I’m nervous,” Rose said Tuesday. “I don’t think I want (my daughter) to go out by herself.”
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives are investigating the kidnapping attempt, which occurred just before 9 p.m. Monday at the apartment complex.
An 11-year-old girl told police a man grabbed her arm and tried to drag her away just outside her apartment, sheriff’s spokesman deputy Rich Niebusch said.
She told police the man first showed up while she and two friends were in a vacant unit below where she lives. The man told the three to leave, but grabbed the girl as she left the apartment. The girl said she jerked her arm free and ran home, where an adult called 911.
The man then reportedly tried to lure a 13-year-old girl down from a second-story balcony before leaving, Niebusch said.
Police searched the area with dogs but were unable to find the man.
Rose said she hadn’t seen any strangers around the apartment complex in recent days.
“I don’t know what he looks like. That’s pretty scary,” she said.
Detectives don’t believe the man matches the description of two suspects connected to other luring attempts in March.
“We are concerned because this is pretty brazen,” Niebusch said. “He is doing this in a public place, dragging the victim in a populated apartment complex.”
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@ heraldnet.com.
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