Man sentenced to 47 years to life for kidnapping 9-year-old girl from upstate New York park
BALLSTON SPA, NY — A man was sentenced Wednesday to 47 years to life in prison for kidnapping and sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl who went missing from an upstate New York state park last year.
Craig N. Ross Jr. pleaded guilty in February to taking the girl in September from a campsite in Moreau Lake State Park, a rural area about 40 miles north of Albany. The disappearance sparked a 48-hour search that ended when she was found alive in an RV where Ross was staying.
“I can’t sleep at night because of you,” the girl, who was not present, said in a statement read in court by Saratoga County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer L. Buckley. “I was imprisoned for two and a half days. , and now you will be in prison for 47 years.”
Judge James A. Murphy III also issued a protective order for the girl, preventing Ross from contacting her in person or through the mail.
Ross, 47, was shackled as he entered the courtroom and appeared to show little emotion during the sentencing. He refused to speak.
The little girl was riding with friends on a bike path at the campground near her home on the evening of September 30 when she went for a last lap of the path on her own and did not return.
More than a hundred people searched for her. A breakthrough in the case came when the police guarding the girl’s house saw someone putting a ransom note in the mailbox.
Police eventually matched the fingerprints on the note to Ross, who was in the database for a 1999 DUI case. State police and an FBI SWAT team then descended on the RV, where the child a cupboard was found.
Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen told reporters she was pleased with the verdict after the hearing.
“The family heard this defendant say that he is guilty of this crime. He admitted he did it, and those who should have testified didn’t have to relive that trauma,” she said.
Ross, who went on trial earlier this month, was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years to life for kidnapping and 22 years to life for predatory sexual assault of a child, with the sentences to be served consecutively.
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Maysoon Khan is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.