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This is horrific and unimaginable.
A rideshare driver has been charged in the case of a missing 23-month-old after she allegedly sped off with the toddler in the backseat of her car. The little girl’s father got out of the car to retrieve her from her car seat after their trip when 25-year-old Sharena Nancy sped off. When authorities caught up to Nancy, the child was nowhere to be found and she claimed she was following the father’s instructions.
From CNN:
A woman is in custody and a toddler is missing from Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, after the child’s father said a rideshare driver abducted his daughter on Saturday evening, according to police documents and a news release. Paul Johnson said he was riding in a car with Lyft and Uber stickers with his daughter and a friend, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Allegheny County police. Johnson said that when he got out of the car and went to get his daughter out of the car seat, the driver drove away with the toddler, the complaint said. The complaint didn’t identify the child, but a police news release said she is named Nalani. Johnson told detectives he tried calling the driver’s cellphone multiple times but she never picked up, so he called 911 around 5 p.m. ET.
When Nancy was arrested she said she sold the child for $10,000 at Johnson’s behest…
Police arrested driver Sharena Nancy, 25, in the vehicle during a traffic stop around 7:30 p.m. ET, but did not find the child inside, the complaint said. According to the complaint, Nancy told detectives that Johnson sold the child to an individual for $10,000 and asked her to complete the dropoff. Nancy said he showed her a photo of a black woman she was supposed to meet and asked her to drive the toddler “20 minutes” from a gas station in Monroeville along US Route 22 to meet the woman, the complaint says. Nancy said she was told the woman would then “flag” her down and Nancy was to turn over the toddler, the complaint says. Nancy told detectives she encountered a silver SUV with out-of-state plates parked on the side of the road and did as she had been instructed — passing the toddler and the carseat over to a woman standing next to the car and then driving off. Nancy told police she also saw a second woman inside the SUV. Nancy said she then drove around, smoked cigarettes and talked on the phone with her husband, the complaint said.
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Nancy was reportedly arraigned on Monday and charged with kidnapping of a minor, interference with custody of children, and concealment of whereabouts of a child.
“If the police felt that PJ was in any way involved, he wouldn’t be walking freely, he’d be locked somewhere up like she is,” Johnson’s mother said of Nancy’s accusations, according to the site. CNN also reports Lyft reached out to say the incident didn’t happen on the Lyft platform. We are keeping Nalani in our prayers and will continue to keep you updated as more details surface.
