Possible abduction attempts probed in Milton, Nashua and Manchester NH

The Union Leader
Possible abduction attempts probed in Milton, Nashua and Manchester
11-9-2009

By BY PAT GROSSMITH AND CLYNTON NAMUO

http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Girl,+15,+reports+abduction+attempt+in+Nashua&articleId=21a9770e-4a95-4f8d-99f0-36f10167b0d6

Two abduction tries of teenage girls and a third possible attempted kidnapping of an 8-year-old school boy this morning are under investigation by police in three different communities.
Milton police said a man offered a ride to an 8-year-old boy waiting this morning for the school bus on Governors Road in Milton. The school principal said the man offered the boy a ride and when he declined, drove off but then returned and offered him a ride for a second time.
The incident comes after a Nashua teenager reported a man tried to force her into his car Saturday night on Stark Street. Nine days earlier, on Oct. 29 in Manchester, a teenage girl reported a man tried to abduct her while she was walking to Memorial High School. And, on Nov. 3, a Bedford teen told police a man followed her as she left Bedford High School.

Milton Elementary School Principal Stephanie Hillis said this morning the 8-year-old was waiting outside his house just south of Route 75 on Governors Road when a man in a red car traveling north on the road stopped in front of him.

"The little boy said, 'He stopped and asked me if I wanted a ride,'" Hillis said.
The boy declined and the man drove up Governors Road, turned around at Route 75 and then drove back down and asked the boy a second time if he wanted a ride, Hillsaid.

The boy again said no and the man drove south, heading toward Rochester, Hillis said.
The boy's mother saw the man try to pick up her son, called the boy inside and then contacted authorities, according to Hillis.
Hillis said the boy described the man as being white, possibly in his 20s, with a goatee and wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt without a hood. She said the car was a red sedan.

"We really don't have a good description of the guy," she said. "The student was very sure it was a red four door."Milton police issued a press release about the incident that described the car as a four-door, 90s boxy-style, red vehicle. The driver was described as a thin man in his 20s with short dark hair and a goatee.
Parents were notified about the abduction attempt this morning via an automated phone system, HIllis said. She said administrators at Nute High School and Nute Middle School were told as well.

Hillis said school children will be talked to today about how to deal with strangers.
In the Nashua incident, a 15-year-old girl was walking about 8:30 p.m. Saturday along Stark Street, near Wellington Street, when a man jumped out of a parked car, grabbed her from behind and tried to force her into the "boxy" type vehicle, possibly a dark-colored SUV. The car had leather interior.

The incident happened in a residential area in the north end of the city, not in the immediate vicinity of any school, according to Lt. Jeffrey Bukunt of the Youth Services Division. He said the girl's only description of the man was that he wore fleece gloves.
"There's very little to go on," he said. Investigators issued a New England-wide teletype to law enforcement regarding the incident but Bukunt said they received no calls back. "Again, there is very little to go on," he said.

The incident remains under investigation but police have not linked it to any of the other cases.
In the Manchester incident, the 17-year-old Manchester Memorial High School student had left school on the morning of Oct. 29 to get something out of her car, which she parked on Gray Street off school grounds. As she was walking back to school, on South Porter Street, a man in a red pickup truck pulled up along side her.

She ignored him and the man got out of the truck and grabbed her by the arms. Police said the girl broke free and ran into some nearby woods, hiding there until she was certain the man was gone.

Police are trying to find the assailant who is described as a thin white man in his 50s, about 5-foot-10, with short brown hair with some gray and a full beard. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans.

Bedford police also continue to investigate a Nov. 3 incident in which a man, described as bearded and in his 50s, followed a 16-year-old girl as she left the school's auditorium about 6:30 p.m. that evening. Police said the man never spoke or touched the teen but followed her as she walked to and got into her car.

The teen told police the man got into a mid-size, dark-colored SUV or van and then followed her as she drove out of the school's parking lot. He turned the vehicle around, she said, when she reached a heavily populated business parking lot.

The student described the man as being about 5-foot-10, weighing 160 to 180 pounds, with a medium build. He was wearing blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt.

Anyone with any information about any of the incidents is asked to call police: Youth Services Division of the Nashua Police Department at 594-3500; Manchester police at 668-8711 or Manchester Crimeline at 624-4040, and Bedford police at 472-5113 or Bedford Crime Line at 472-8999.