LOUISIANA, Mo. — A man considered a person of interest in the abduction of a 4-year-old Missouri girl, who was later found safe, shot himself when authorities approached his home Wednesday, police said.
Officers went to the man’s home about 4:30 p.m. in the city of Hawk Point, which is about halfway between where Alisa Maier was taken from her front yard Monday night and the St. Louis suburb about 70 miles away where she was found wandering around a car wash late Tuesday.
Police did not identify the man and would not say why he was deemed a “person of interest.” He was taken to a hospital and his condition was not immediately known late Wednesday.
St. Louis County Police spokesman Rick Eckhard stopped short of calling him a suspect. But Eckhard said a dark-colored car parked outside his home matched descriptions given by Alisa’s brother, who was playing with her in their front yard when she was taken, and by a witness at the car wash.
Still, Eckhard said there may be other persons of interest and that it was “too soon to say” whether the investigation was coming to an end.
Alisa and her 6-year-old brother, Blake, were playing Monday in the front yard of their home in Louisiana, a quiet Mississippi River town 70 miles north of St. Louis, after their mother stepped inside to prepare dinner. Around 8 p.m., Blake went in and told his mom a stranger in a black car pulled up and ordered Alisa to get in, then drove off.
A frantic search ensued, drawing help from at least five dozen police officers, the FBI and more than 100 volunteers. Hope had started to dim as a Tuesday night prayer vigil broke up and nightfall arrived.
But Alisa’s parents soon got a call from police that a child had been found in Fenton, a St. Louis suburb. Police faxed a photo to FBI agents, who showed the picture to the parents. They confirmed it was their little girl.
A witness at the Fenton carwash described a sighting similar to Blake’s: a dark-colored, four-door car, possibly a Ford Escort, seen leaving the area.
Angela Reddick, Alisa’s great-aunt, said she spoke with the girl’s parents and was told Alisa was unharmed and had not been assaulted in any way.
“The only thing he did was cut her hair to change her appearance — he tried to disguise the fact she was a girl,” Reddick said.
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