Girl, 5, found safe after Amber Alert
SLED, North Charleston police help N.C. officials recover child
By David MacDougall
A 5-year-old girl who was the object of an Amber Alert issued Thursday morning in North Carolina was found safe and unharmed in North Charleston about eight hours after authorities said she was abducted from her Fort Bragg home.
Te-amani Leshay Gerald was found safe at a mobile home on Marson Street shortly before 4 p.m., according to Jennifer Timmons, State Law
Enforcement Division public information officer.
Te-amani Leshay Gerald
SLED agents had been actively looking for the child after being asked to assist North Carolina authorities, Timmons said. The Amber Alert said the child and her abductors were thought to be heading for Charleston in a dark-colored 1999 Suburban with South Carolina license plates. SLED agents based in Charleston spotted the vehicle near Rivers Avenue and pulled it over, Timmons said.
During the stop, agents learned where the child was, Timmons said. North Charleston police assisted SLED in going to the mobile home and recovering the child.
North Carolina authorities said the child was taken from her front yard about 8:15 a.m.
while she was waiting for a ride to school.
Authorities alleged that Alexis D. Gerald and Phyllis Gerald abducted the child. Authorities said Alexis is the child's mother and Phyllis is her grandmother, but neither have custody.
According to reports from WRAL-TV in Raleigh, Alexis Gerald was served with court papers on Wednesday denying her custody of the child. The child's father, Sgt. Alfonso Green, said the girl had been living with him for about a year, WRAL reported. He and Gerald were never married.
Timmons said when Gerald learned that an Amber Alert had been issued, she went to the North Charleston Police Department. Police turned her over to SLED investigators, said Spencer Pryor, North Charleston Police public information officer.
No charges were filed in the case on Thursday. Officials at Fort Bragg were unavailable for comment, and a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety said she had no information on whether charges would be filed.
Reach David W. MacDougall at 937-5655 or macdougd@postandcourier.com.
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