A man is accused of kidnapping a 7-year-old girl in Minnesota shortly after she had gotten off her school bus, according to authorities.
The girl, Brynlee Nelson, was found the morning of Thursday, January 22, and has been reunited with her family, the Albert Lea Police Department announced in a news release.
Now, Joseph Andrew Bragg, 28, of Maple Grove, is in custody in connection with her abduction, police said.
Bragg kidnapped Brynlee at around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, January 21, when she was arriving home from school in Zimmerman, which is about a 45-mile drive northwest from Minneapolis, according to the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office.
She was reported missing to the sheriff’s office that evening, around 6:31 p.m., deputies said.
Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office Commander Ben Zawacki said authorities suspected she “was a victim of a stranger abduction,” CBS News reported.
After an Amber Alert was shared for Brynlee later that night, investigators “identified a white Dodge Ram pickup as a suspect vehicle,” the sheriff’s office said.
Officers with the Albert Lea Police Department spotted the vehicle traveling along Interstate 35 around 12:34 a.m. on January 22 and pulled the pickup truck over, according to police.
Inside the truck, officers found Brynlee, and Bragg was arrested on the spot, according to police.
Brynlee was medically evaluated at the Mayo Clinic Health System before she was returned to her family, police said.
“By the grace of God and everyone looking, my baby girl Brynlee has been found,” the girl’s mother, Mikailah Nelson, wrote on Facebook. “More to come, please continue to pray for her !!”
Bragg is expected to be charged with abducting Brynlee, the sheriff’s office said.
Information on whether he has legal representation was not immediately available. A potential motive for the kidnapping remains unclear.
While speaking with CBS News, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said that Bragg is an “evil individual” with “no significant criminal history.”
Zawacki said on January 22 that there is a “social media” factor related to the abduction, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
“We want to thank the numerous law enforcement and first responders who assisted in the search,” the sheriff’s office said.
The office also thanked the “hundreds of volunteers” who helped in searching for Brynlee.
In the U.S., over 460,000 children are reported missing each year, according to the National Child Protection Task Force.
“Every child who disappears faces serious risks: exploitation, trafficking, and harm that grows each minute they’re away,” the organization says online.
In Virginia, authorities are searching for three missing girls — Forever Scott, 12, Joseline Krofec, 14, and Darsha McAllister, 16 — after they vanished the morning of Sunday, January 18, Luxury Handbag Shopping previously reported.
They were last “seen leaving a residence” around 7:30 a.m. in Portsmouth, according to the Portsmouth Police Department.
All three girls disappeared from the Harbor Point Behavioral Health Center, where they had been staying as residents, the mental health clinic’s CEO, Freddie Anderson, confirmed to WAVY.
Forever, the youngest of the three, is considered endangered because of her age, according to police.
