Rescued Girl Is Recovering, Abductor Still Loose
SYRACUSE, N.Y., Oct. 27, 2004 — -- A chance discovery probably saved a young girl's life, but six months after 6-year-old Brittany Fish, who was snatched off the street near her home, was found shivering and moaning, bound and gagged under a tarp, whoever abducted her is still on the loose.
The nationwide manhunt for whoever abducted the little girl has produced lots of leads, but still no suspects, Syracuse law enforcement officials said.
"We're looking into every clue that comes in by phone, mail, whatever means," Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told ABC News affiliate WIXT-TV in Syracuse.
At one time, investigators were getting more than 100 tips a day, but now they say they're down to just eight or 10 per week.
"Basically, we're at the same point we were then," Fitzpatrick said. "We're no further ahead at this point, but we still have numerous leads that we're following up on."
Most of them are linked to the composite sketch that was developed with Brittany's help by a top forensic artist.
"The person may very well have made efforts to conceal his identity both by cloaking his fingers and retrieving any biological fluid, any material, he may have left at the crime scene," the prosecutor said. "I am of the opinion that it's a local person. I know the crime lab has a mountain of evidence. There's still a possibility that we may get physical evidence to tie to the perpetrator to her abduction."
Brittany was rescued last April when a man looking over a vacant truck depot in nearby De Witt found a tarpaulin on the ground and lifted it to find the little girl tied up underneath it, but alive.
"This case was miraculous," said retired FBI agent Bob O'Brien, who works with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and was involved in the case as director of Team Adam, a group of trained former law enforcement officials who helps local police on missing and abducted child cases.
The man told police he'd heard moaning and lifted the tarp expecting to find a puppy. Instead, there was Brittany, her eyes and mouth covered with duct tape, her wrists also bound with tape, and her feet secured with plastic ties, police said.
The girl was wearing just a T-shirt and shorts, and in the chilly spring weather she was close to hypothermia and already suffering frostbite in her fingertips, police said.
But her family said the youngster shows few scars from her ordeal.
"She's still spirited. She's still not afraid of people. She's playful and loving," Linda Slifka, Brittany's aunt, told WIXT-TV. "I don't see any effect on the outside. She's still a wonderful sweet little girl."
Brittany was abducted off the street about a block from her house between 6 and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 24. She had left her own home on a pink scooter, and was on her way to a friend's house about two blocks away, police said.
Another neighborhood child found her scooter on a storm drain, and her parents called police around 7 p.m. Within an hour, police had helicopters out and police and dozens of volunteers began a search that would not be interrupted until the next afternoon when word got out that she had been found.
Two weeks after she was found, the girl was able to help police draw up a sketch of the abductor, but though it brought in a new surge of tips, none of them led police to a suspect.
Two months into the investigation, Syracuse police set up a special hot line, and again received a new increase in the number of tips, but again, nothing panned out.
"One of the reasons that this case is such a priority for us is the fact that we feel there is a probability that this guy could try to do it again," Syracuse police Sgt. Tom Connellan said after the hot line was announced. "We really want to get this guy before we have another incident."
All the evidence in the case indicated that whoever abducted Brittany had done something like it before, and would likely try it again, said O'Brien, a 33-year veteran of the FBI and former deputy director of the missing children office of the bureau.
"I think this case will be solved," he said. "The people who are involved in this type of thing have a tendency to do it again. And specifics like the way he bound her with tape, the way he hid her, indicated whoever did it probably had been involved in something like this before."
In September, a 5-year-old girl was led away from her mother at the New York State Fair in Rochester when the woman stopped to sign a petition and briefly let go of her daughter's hand. When police arrested a suspect, they thought they might have the person responsible for Brittany's abduction.
Connellan said the two girls resembled one another.
John Weiner, 41, of Rochester, was indicted on charges of attempted kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child in the fair incident, but investigators could find nothing to link him to Brittany's abduction.
As frustrating as that has been for police, they still had good news to report this week.
"We would like everyone to know that Brittany is recovering well and is very happy to be home with her family," said Detective R.J. Lenhart.
The hot line number for tips on the Brittany Fish abduction case is (315) 442-5454.
ABCNews.com's Dean Schabner and ABC News affiliate WIXT-TV in Syracuse contributed to this report.