Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, a 22 year old nursing aide, was kidnapped in Philadelphia on Sunday night. She was forced into a car and now, just under three days later, she has been rescued by police.
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Keisha Gaither, her mother, has thanked detectives for their tireless efforts in achieving the safe return of Carlesha.
The detective work involved following up on many leads. The first break came when a woman found a bag of trash in her driveway and inside the bag was a supermarket receipt, shattered glass and a bag of potato chips. Having heard about the case from a friend, she called detectives who were then able to go to the supermarket where the receipt came from, where they discovered the surveillance tape of the incident and video of the perpetrator buying the same brand of chips as found in the trash.
Once they had made the surveillance video public, they received a call from Richmond, Virginia where the ATF office were investigating a man called Delvin Barnes, and having seen the surveillance video they thought it may be him.
By then detectives had a rough idea of where Barnes might be as they located an ATM where Carlesha’s bank card had been used.
Detectives then traced the dealership where Barnes had purchased his car and discovered the vehicle had been fitted with a GPS device because the man had a poor credit record. From there it was then a simple task to track the vehicle to a parking lot where he was arrested by federal agents.
Carlesha was taken to hospital for treatment but is expected to make a full recovery.
Delvin Barnes, aged 37, who is now in custody, has been in trouble several times before with charges ranging from rape and assault to burglary. In fact, he had recently been released from jail when he was arrested.