Youth's story of abduction from Tenn. false, Rossford police say

5/23/2014

Authorities say the story that a 9-year-old boy told about being abducted from Tennessee after authorities found him late today walking along northbound I-75 in Rossford was not true.

A passersby called Rossford police, who spotted the boy around 9:15 p.m. near the Northwood border, Chief Glenn Goss said.

The boy told police that he‘d been pushed out of a car and fell asleep alongside the interstate before he started walking. He didn’t know what type of car he was in, and he couldn’t identify his captors, because they were wearing masks.

An officer learned today that he had run away from his residence in Toledo after arguing with his father and had planned to head to Tennessee to see his mother, according to a statement released by the police chief.

Although Wood County officials had made plans for the young boy to stay in temporary custody, the case was turned over to the Lucas County Children’s Services who requested that the boy be released to his father, Gregory Jackson, of Toledo.

The boy had initially told police that he was walking home from a friend’s on Tuesday when he was abducted by two masked men. His only apparent injuries were marks on his arms and legs from being pushed out of the car, Chief Goss said. The boy said he was hungry, so police “got him a pizza and a pop, and he‘s talking to the investigator from [Wood County] Children Services.”