Horrifying moment crying girl, 12, came running from remote woods after being ‘kidnapped’ from a sleepover

A 12-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped from a sleepover in North Carolina was rescued after she ran out of remote woods onto a roadside, where a passing motorist stopped to help. Jennifer Maxwell, a healthcare assistant driving home from work, spotted the barefoot, scratched and hysterical child near Erwin, about 45 miles south of Raleigh, and immediately called 911 before the alleged kidnapper, 38-year-old Daniel Francis Gear, was captured following a manhunt.

The girl told Maxwell she had been sleeping over at her best friend's house in Lillington when the friend's uncle, Gear, allegedly woke her, drove her into the woods and forced her to walk for hours. Police captured Gear around 8.15pm on Sunday after a seven-hour search involving drones and police dogs; he has since been charged with first-degree kidnapping and assault and is held on a $2.5 million bond, with his next court date set for 1 September. Maxwell was later involved in a car accident while returning from giving her police statement, but she and the girl were reunited briefly at hospital, where the child's grateful parents thanked her.