Thursday, 4:30 PM
Attempted abduction alarms Maynard residents
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff
MAYNARD -- It was becoming dark, and most of the children who had filled Amory Avenue since early afternoon had returned home. But at the end of the cozy, tree-lined street, in front of a house with a lawn full of toys, a 9-year-old girl vigorously bounced a basketball. A green pick-up truck pulled alongside her, and a man got out, police said.
He put his hand over the girl’s mouth and started dragging her to his pickup truck. The suspect told the girl that if she told anyone, he was going to kill her, the girl later told police. But the girl resisted, striking the man in the arm and pulling away. She screamed for her best friend, who lived at the house on Amory Avenue. The man jumped into his truck and sped away.
Police Wednesday notified neighborhood residents that a possible child predator, described as a tall, thin, well-tanned white man with freckles, may be in the area.
"We think she did fine," said Chief James Cocoran, referring to the victim during a press conference Wednesday at Town Hall. "She got away from the suspect, started yelling and resisted ... she got away."
Both girls spent early Wednesday afternoon describing the man to a Concord Police Department sketch artist. Cocoran said the composite drawing may be circulated throughout town Thursday.
Wednesday, the mother of the victim’s friend said her daughter was shaken by the incident but appears to be fine. She asked that her name not be used because the suspect is at-large and declined to talk about the victim, her daughter’s best friend.
"It’s unbelievable to think that something like that could happen on this street," the mother said. "We’ve never had anything like this happen before around here."
Globe Correspondent Michael Naughton contributed to this report.
