Four-year-old Heidi Renae Todd was found inside a vehicle Wednesday by police chief in Riverside, Alabama
Authorities say a 4-year-old girl who disappeared after her mother was badly beaten in her South Carolina home has been found safe in Alabama.
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the police chief in Riverside, Alabama, saw Heidi Todd inside a vehicle Wednesday afternoon and managed to get her out safely before the driver sped away.
Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson says 37-year-old Thomas Evans is wanted for kidnapping. Authorities did not say why he might have kidnapped the girl.
According to Mayor John Tecklenburg, he has seen a photo of Heidi with FBI, smiling and making a paper airplane.
“What could have been a day of great tragedy has turned out to be a day of great joy,” Tecklenburg said, according to Post and Courier.
The girl disappeared from her Johns Island home Tuesday. Tecklenburg says her mother was found badly beaten after she failed to pick up two of her other children from school.
Riverside, Alabama, is on Interstate 20 about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of Birmingham.
A desperate hunt is underway for a missing four-year-old girl in South Carolina who vanished from her home after her mother was brutally beaten by an intruder.
Heidi Renae Todd was last seen at her family home in John’s Island near Charleston on Tuesday afternoon.
She was reported missing at 6pm after police arrived at the house to find her 31-year-old mother Brittany brutally beaten.
Thomas Evans, 37, is wanted for kidnapping but authorities did not say a motive
Friends say the attack happened at 10am but no one knew until later in the day when Brittany failed to pick up the older children from school.
Brittany’s mother has since described her attacker as a slim-build, Hispanic man in his 20s who was dressed entirely in gray.
The FBI is now offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who knows where the child may be. An additional $10,000 was donated to the reward fund by an anonymous donor on Wednesday.
Police have released a sketch a person of interest who has been seen in the neighborhood over the last few days.
They would not go as far as to say that he is the man who beat Brittany, stating only that they wanted to speak to him because he had been seen in the area in recent days.
He was depicted with an elaborate a flame tattoo on one side of his face and a lightning bolt on the other cheek.
The girl’s father was working for the US Coast Guard in Virginia when she vanished. He has since returned home.
Heidi’s mother Brittany, 31, (above with one of her younger siblings) was brutally beaten as she tried to enter the home. She was not found for several hours, by which point Heidi was missing
Police released this sketch of a person of interest who they say want to talk to. The man has a distinctive flame tattoo on his left cheek and was in the area several days ago
He is not being labeled a suspect at this time but authorities are eager to speak to him.
They believe the intruder followed Brittany home from dropping off the children at school in the morning.
Police will not say whether they think he snatched the girl or if she wandered out of the house herself while her mother was unconscious.
Two other, younger children were inside the house with their mother when police arrived. They were not harmed.
Earlier today, police searched local lakes and woods but couldn’t find her.
‘There are many things that we do not know, yet, that we are still investigating, but there’s one thing we know, and that is that Heidi Todd is missing, and we need everyone to be on the lookout for this young lady,’ Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Later, he said: ‘Heidi is a bright, precious young child.
‘The wish and prayer of the Todd family is simple – to find Heidi safely.
‘Keep your eyes or ears out for Heidi or for this gentleman of interest that we’d like to talk to about the incident.’
Mayor Tecklenburg described the family as ‘wonderful’ and paid tribute to her father – a former firefighter who now works as for the Coast Guard.
Heidi was last seen wearing a hot pink top and blue trousers. Police do not know if she wandered out of the home while her mother was unconscious or if she was taken by the same intruder who beat her mother
Heidi was last seen at her family’S $300,000 home in John’s Island near Charleston, South Carolina, by her mother. Police found the woman inside at 5pm on Tuesday, beaten unconscious. When she came to, she realized Heidi was missing
Heidi’s father Kevin (above with her mother) works for the US Coast Guard in Virginia. He was not in South Carolina at the time of his daughter’s disappearance
Heidi’s mother Brittany is in a ‘fair condition’ in hospital but is undergoing surgery.
She was able to speak to give a ‘very brief’ description of her attacker.
Heidi was wearing a hot pink top and blue pants when she disappeared.
She is the middle child in the family. The youngest, who was also inside the home at the time, is only a few months old.
Police outside the home on Tuesday night after Heidi vanished. They searched local lakes and woods but have found no trace of the girl
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and Police Chief Jerome Taylor are pictured at the scene on Wednesday