A 9-year-old boy was pulled to safety by a passerby after a woman allegedly lured him away from a Fresno park using a small dog, then grabbed him and his backpack as he tried to get away, according to police. The woman, identified by police as 55-year-old Debbie Blancas, was later located.
Fresno police officers were flagged down by a woman and a child at a park near North Marks Avenue and East Emerson Avenue, according to the Fresno Police Department. The reporting party told officers she had seen Blancas pulling a child on North Marks Avenue; police were told Blancas had no children, police said.
Police Say Suspect Posed as the Boy's Mother
According to police, Blancas tried to portray herself as the child's mother when confronted, even as the boy appeared visibly frightened. Police allege Blancas had used a small dog to lure the 9-year-old away from the park before pulling him in the opposite direction of his home.
When the reporting party intervened, police say Blancas grabbed and held onto both the boy and his backpack before the bystander managed to pull the child free. Blancas then ran southbound on North Marks Avenue and was later located, according to police.
Suspect Booked on Kidnapping, False Imprisonment Charges
Officers arrested Blancas on suspicion of kidnapping and false imprisonment, police said. The boy was returned to his family unharmed, according to police. Under California law, false imprisonment is defined as the unlawful violation of another person's personal liberty, per the California Legislative Information website.
A separate Fresno kidnapping case made headlines around the same time, though it does not appear to involve Blancas. The Fresno Bee reported that a woman named Tyiesha Davis was arrested after allegedly trying to grab an 8-year-old child, pulling the child's hair and forcing them toward a vehicle before the child broke free, ran to a nearby home and pounded on the door until someone let them in. Davis was booked on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and child endangerment, with bail set at $85,000, according to jail records cited by the outlet. The Fresno Bee reported that police described that incident as unrelated to an earlier case involving two children found in a stolen vehicle.
