Kidnapped Pennsylvania girl found more than 150 miles away in Brooklyn without shoes, officials say

A 13-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who was abducted early Wednesday was found more than 150 miles away in New York without shoes, officials said, noting there was a “connection” to her abductor.

An Ambert Alert was issued for Janae Kalia-Henry on Wednesday after she was abducted from a Reading home around 2 a.m., Reading Police Chief Richard Tornielli told an evening news conference.

Pennsylvania State Police said the child was picked up by an unknown person who placed her in a silver Chevrolet Traverse.

She was found more than 15 hours later on Liberty Avenue in Brooklyn around 6 p.m. Wednesday, the New York Police Department said.

She was found after someone called 911 saying they found a missing girl. Police say Kalia-Henry told the caller she was kidnapped earlier in Pennsylvania.

She was taken to hospital for evaluation and showed no visible injuries, police said.

Tornielli said detectives would take her home.

The NYPD and FBI arrested Dwayne Taylor, 47, in Brooklyn on state charges, Tornielli said. It is unclear what these charges are.

He was taken into custody after Reading Police called the NYPD saying a person then interested in the case was near Broadway Junction tube station, but he was not found after a search.

The motive for the abduction was not shared, but Tornielli said authorities “do not believe it was a random abduction.”

“We thought she might have been kidnapped by someone she knew or knew,” he said.

Family members told NBC Philadelphia that Kalia-Henry’s mother dated Taylor for a few months after meeting online. The pair had broken up and Taylor broke into the house on Wednesday morning and took her daughter away for unknown reasons, relatives said.

Reading mayor Eddie Moran warned the public: “Let this be a lesson to anyone trying to harm one of our little ones, that we will do everything we can to ensure they are apprehended immediately. “