DPS: 2 alleged kidnap tries

Police reports of two separate kidnapping attempts in Dandan—one at a private home and another near a
bus stop—has prompted the Public School System to warn their children of “stranger danger.”
Education Commissioner Dr. Alfred Ada said that PSS is encouraging parents to wait with their children, if possible, while they wait at bus stops and to warn children about the danger of talking to strangers.

Ada is asking parents, who have the time to wait, to chaperone their children as well as the other children while waiting for the bus to arrive at bus stops.

In the past month, two attempted kidnappings were reported in the village of Dandan: one near a bus stop and another at a private home. The Department of Public Safety is looking at a possible relation between the two reports as the suspect in both cases reportedly drives a silver/gray sedan.

The suspect driving the sedan is described as having dark hair and speaks good English. The vehicle is described as a gray sedan with dark tint and scratches on its side.

The most recent instance was last Sunday at around 5:54pm, when police received a call reporting an attempted kidnapping at a private residence in Dandan.

Police arrived at the home some three minutes later and met with the victim’s mother, who reported the incident.

The victim, a female juvenile, told police that she was washing her hands at an outdoor spigot, when an unfamiliar, silver-colored sedan pulled into her property, with a man who called out to her to come to him.

The male suspect told the victim that he was there “to drop something for your mom” but, as soon as the driver attempted to step out of the vehicle, the victim ran inside the home and told an older cousin, who called the victim’s mother.

The other incident was reported last Jan. 10 at around 6pm. DPS received a call reporting an attempted kidnapping incident near a school bus stop in Dandan.

Police met with the caller, a juvenile, who stated that they wanted to report an unusual incident that occurred earlier in the day as they were waiting at their bus stop.

The victim told police that a gray-colored sedan (no make or model reported), pulled up near the bus stop and parked along the shoulder of the road. The suspect in the vehicle then rolled down the passenger-side window slightly and asked a female juvenile to follow him to Garapan.

Both cases remain under investigation. However, DPS would like to remind the public and parents to be aware of the incident, and to speak with children about the dangers of strangers asking unusual questions, especially when there are no familiar adults around.

The most notorious incident of a disappearance in the CNMI also occurred near a public school bus shelter in As Teo, when sisters Faloma and Maleina Luhk disappeared on May 25, 2011. The sisters’ house is located just a few meters from the school bus shelter. Faloma and Maleina were 10 and 9 years old, respectively, at the time of their disappearance. The case remains unsolved.