Detective Credits Kidnapping Victim for Smart Move

He thinks Carlesha Freeland-Gaither dropped her phone on purpose
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 6, 2014 5:15 PM CST
Detective Credits Kidnapping Victim for Smart Move
This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Carlesha Freeland-Gaither.   (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department)

The lead detective in the kidnapping of Carlesha Freeland-Gaither in Philadelphia credits two people for last night's rescue: the witness who called police and the 22-year-old victim herself. "She's an intelligent person," Detective Jim Sloan tells the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sloan thinks Freeland-Gaither intentionally dropped her phone during the abduction to give police a clue. He also calls the man who witnessed the attack and phoned police twice a "hero" who deserves the $47,000 reward that was being offered. (No decision on that yet.) Freeland-Gaither isn't available to confirm the detective's hunch about the phone, because she has left her home for an undisclosed location to recover in private, reports NBC Philadelphia.

"My understanding is, even after she was in the car and bound, she continued to struggle with this guy," Philadelphia police chief Charles Ramsey tells ABC News. "She's got a lot of fight in her." The big break in the case? Police spotted the name of a used-car dealer on suspect Delvin Barnes' vehicle from a traffic camera image, reports AP. They called the dealer, and he turned on the car's GPS system—it had been installed because the dealership was leery of Barnes' lousy credit and figured it might have to repossess the car someday. Within minutes, police knew the vehicle's exact location in Maryland. (More kidnapping stories.)

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