Boat Racer's Daughter Dumped in Street After Being Abducted from Mother's Arms Outside School
One day after the 6-year-old daughter of a Formula 1 powerboat racer was kidnapped in broad daylight, the girl was back with her family.
Amy-Lee de Jager was pulled from her mother’s arms outside a South Africa school on Monday, the New York Post reported. She is the daughter of racing champion Wynand de Jager.
The girl was with her mother, Angeline, and younger brother, Jayden, in Johannesburg when four men leaped out of an SUV and grabbed the girl. Angeline de Jager suffered an injured shoulder attempting to rescue her daughter.
Martin Brouwers, Angeline de Jager’s father, described the kidnapping.
“My daughter was dropping off the kids off at school and when the two little ones climbed out, Angeline walked around the side to take Amy-Leigh out and a guy just bumped little Jayden out the way and grabbed Amy-Leigh, jumped into the car and they started flying off. Angeline tried to hold onto the car and she couldn’t hold on and got seriously hurt,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
? BREAKING: Family confirms Amy Lee de Jager, the 6-year-old Grade R girl who was kidnapped from Vanderbijlpark has been found and has been reunited with her family. #AmyLeeDeJager pic.twitter.com/6PYXEYnOl8
— Leandri Janse van Vuuren (@Lean3JvV) September 3, 2019
Not long after the girl was abducted, her family received a ransom demand of 2 million rand, which amounts to about $132,000. The demand came in a phone call to the family.
Although the family did not pay the ransom, Amy-Lee was released Tuesday morning. According to The Mirror, the girl was dumped on a street at about 2 a.m.
In its reporting on the abduction, the Evening Standard noted that “police believe the kidnappers panicked and realized the little girl was ‘too hot to handle’ following massive publicity.”
“Her photo was all over the internet and the news and we think they thought they were better off cutting their losses and ditching Amy-Lee,” a source told the outlet.
“She has been found,” her aunt, Louise Horn, told the South African Sunday Times.
“The people dropped her off in the streets and a woman and her man heard her crying and rushed her to the police station,” she said.
The girl appeared to be unharmed, Horn said, but was taken to the hospital for a checkup.
“It was the longest 19 hours of our lives,” Horn said. “We are really glad she’s back with us.”
“Angeline is traumatized as is Wynand and it is going to be a long road of recovery for all of them,” she said.
The girl’s first requests for were for “a burger and her brother,” according to Horn.
“Amy was found this morning and she is undergoing a medical examination at a local hospital,” police spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo said. “The investigation into her disappearance and sudden reappearance is still ongoing. It is our appeal that this investigation be allowed to take its course.”
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