VESTAL, N.Y. (AP) – Authorities say a pair of teenage sisters who were reported as runaways last year in upstate New York were actually abducted by a family acquaintance.
Police say a telephone tip led them to 15-year-old Ky-Lea Fortner and 13-year-old Shaeleen Fitch-Fortner on Wednesday night in Vestal, near Binghamton.
State police say the sisters were living with a foster family in Binghamton in April 2015 when they were reported as runaways. But authorities now say the acquaintance, 29-year-old Amanda Hellman, abducted them on their way to school and held them against their will.
Hellman is jailed without bail on kidnapping charges. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea at her arraignment Thursday.
Investigators wouldn’t say how the girls were treated in captivity or what prevented them from leaving.