Good Samaritan Who Called Police Twice in Abduction Case Hailed as Hero
— -- Investigators praised the actions of a Good Samaritan who called police twice with key tips that helped them save Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, the nurse who was abducted from a Philadelphia street on Sunday and was found Wednesday in Maryland.
Dwayne Fletcher was identified by police as the man who reportedly witnessed the kidnapping and called police and picked up the phone that she threw out of the car after punching out a window.
"If it wasn't for him, I don't think we would've had the same outcome," Philadelphia police Detective James Sloan said during a news conference today.
Freeland-Gaither, 22, is said to be resting now after being checked out at a Baltimore hospital and later reunited with her family.
"You have this 22-year-old girl who went through a hell of an ordeal and we were able to bring her home safe," said Sloan, who was the one to call Freeland-Gaither's relatives and tell them the good news Wednesday.
Her grandmother, Ana Mulero, said today that the family is relieved and happy.
Freeland-Gaither's alleged abductor, Delvin Barnes, appeared in a Maryland district court via video conference this afternoon and waived his right to fight extradition. He has outstanding capital attempted murder and rape charges in Virginia stemming from an Oct. 1 attack on a 16-year-old girl, authorities said.
The Maryland judge mandated that Virginian law enforcement officials have five days to pick Barnes up and bring him back to Charles City-County to face those charges.
He has not yet been charged with any crimes in connection to Freeland-Gaither's abduction, though federal charges are expected to be filed in that case at some point today.
Law enforcement officials told ABC News that authorities tracked Barnes' car through a GPS device, which the car dealership in Virginia was able to access, pointing them to the exact vehicle about 6 p.m. Wednesday. Capt. Jason Crawley of the Charles City County Sheriff's Office told ABC News that the car dealer installs GPS devices on certain cars when the customers have financial issues.
"It did have the right rear window kicked out of it which was similar to the information that we had received from the Philadelphia Police Department," ATF agent Tim Jones told ABC Philadelphia station WPVI.
He said that the agents staked out the car because they "wanted to determine if the vehicle was occupied." They saw a male and female in the rear seat of the vehicle, Jones said.
"After another few moments the male then climbed from the rear into the driver’s seat and it looked like he was attempting to start the vehicle and drive away from this location," Jones said. "For fear of him driving away before we could detain them and determine if that was actually the abduction victim, the agents at that point moved in, utilized one of their vehicles to block him, to prevent him from leaving the parking area."
They were then able to take him into custody "without incident" and the woman was "very relieved" to see police.
"Once she had the time to process what had occurred you could tell she was very emotionally distraught," Jones said of Freeland-Gaither.
ABC News' Benjamin Stein and Mara Schiavocampo contributed to this report.
