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The search is on for a nine-year-old girl believed to have been abducted while riding her bicycle through Moreau Lake State Park in upstate New York.
An Amber Alert was issued for Charlotte Sena on Sunday morning. She was last seen the previous day around 6:15 pm during a camping trip with family.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stated that Charlotte “was taken under circumstances that lead police to believe (she) is in imminent danger of serious injury and/or death.”
Charlotte was last seen wearing an orange tie-dye Pokémon shirt, dark blue pants, black Crocs and a gray bicycle helmet. She is described as white with blonde hair, is 6 feet tall and weighs 90 pounds.
“I just want my daughter back,” Charlotte’s mother, Trisha Sena, told the BBC Albany Times Union crying.
She described Charlotte as “a good kid” who “trusts.”
Charlotte Sena, a fourth-grader from Greenfield, was last seen Saturday around 6:15 p.m. while on a camping trip with family and friends at Moreau Lake State Park.
The nine-year-old was reported missing at around 6.45pm the same day when she failed to return from a cycling trip
She was last seen wearing an orange tie-dye Pokémon shirt, dark blue pants, black Crocs and a gray bicycle helmet
Charlotte is believed to be at risk of serious injury “and/or death,” according to an Amber Alert issued shortly after her disappearance
Charlotte was visiting the state park just 15 minutes away from Greenfield, where she and her two sisters grew up. Family and friends camped, cooked and rode bikes together.
The nine-year-old and two close friends – so close she considered them cousins – went for a bike ride on Saturday evening before darkness fell.
They circled the trail and although her friends decided to head back, Charlotte wanted to go around alone one last time.
When 15 minutes passed and she hadn’t returned to the campsite, parents David and Trisha felt it something was wrong.
They called her name, and when there was no response, people left their food and tables to search for the nine-year-old, including strangers from other campsites.
Thirty minutes later, at 6:37 p.m., Trisha called 911. State police responded to the scene at 7 p.m. The fourth-grader’s bicycle was recovered, but there was no trace of Charlotte.
New York State Police activated an amber alert at 9:35 a.m. Sunday, noting it was “due to a child abduction” that occurred the night before around 6:45 p.m.
An additional search team was deployed that morning.
More than 100 people searched tirelessly for the fourth-grader, including forest rangers and 75 law enforcement officers.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul hosted a press conference Sunday afternoon where she provided updates on the search
Moreau Lake State Park is just a 15-minute drive from Greenfield, where Charlotte grew up
More than 100 people have joined the search for the fourth-grader, including 75 members of law enforcement. Drones, an airboat and a boat with sonar were deployed
Charlotte’s mother, Trisha, described her as “trusting” and “a good child.” Governor Hochul called her ‘the kind of girl people wanted to be friends with’
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul held a press conference Sunday morning to provide updates on the search. She was accompanied by members of law enforcement, including the FBI.
“They were here to make memories, the kind that last a lifetime,” she said. ‘But instead the day turned into every parent’s nightmare.
Hochul said she met the girl’s parents.
“As a mother, as a grandmother, I can’t imagine the pain they’re going through,” she said. “They told me how happy their little girl is.”
Charlotte is a fourth grade student at Corinth Central Elementary School and was recently elected class officer for the student council.
The governor described her as “the kind of girl people wanted to be friends with,” and someone who looks out for others – “the pride of any parent.”
Law enforcement has established a command post at the state park.
Hochul said they used two drones, an airboat, six underwater rescue teams and a boat equipped with sonar, as well as K-9 teams with bloodhounds.
‘Tech experts’ had been brought in ‘to analyze other forms of communication in the park.’
Hochul added that the Schenectady Fire Department assisted in the search as Charlotte was the niece of one of the members.
“We leave no stone, no branch, no table, no hut unturned, untouched, unexamined in our quest to find Charlotte,” she said.
‘Hearts are broken today in New York. Hopefully there will be a reunion. Hopefully there is a family that is traumatized but reunited.”
Law enforcement on Sunday continued to describe the case as a search of the park.
But “the extensive investigation made it entirely possible that an abduction had occurred,” said state police Lt. Col. Richard Mazzone.
Charlotte’s father David is a member of Local Union 773 Plumbers, Pipefitters, Steamfitters and Service Technicians from Queensbury.
The union asked for help finding Charlotte, adding: “Please keep the Sena family in your thoughts and prayers.”