NORFOLK, Va. — Authorities in North Carolina and Virginia were following up on tips Tuesday in the search for a 7-month-old girl who police say was abducted from her mother at knifepoint by the baby’s father.
Virginia State Police issued an Amber Alert and believe the infant, Emma Grace Kennedy, is in “extreme danger” as her father possibly heads to Oak Island on North Carolina’s coast.
Carl Ray Kennedy, 51, kidnapped his daughter Sunday at a gas station in Danville, Virginia, on the border with North Carolina, police said. He may have been spotted Monday in Seven Springs, southeast of Raleigh.
Kennedy is a registered sex offender with a long criminal history, police said. He is currently out of jail on a $250,000 bond on a drug distribution charge.
An aunt of the girl said she believes that Kennedy is capable of harming his daughter.
“At his age and his health, I wouldn’t put anything past him,” said Amy Wyatt Metzger, a sister of Krysten Murphy, the baby’s mother.
“He’s said things alluding to harming her or the family or the baby,” said Metzger, who lives in Virginia Beach. “Things like, ‘I’m going to blow up your family’s house. If I can’t be with the baby, you can’t either.’”
Metzger said Kennedy had been harassing Murphy and her family in person, by phone and on social media since losing custody of the girl a couple months ago.
Murphy and Kennedy had lived together for about a year and a half in Randleman, North Carolina, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Raleigh, Metzger said.
After they split up, Murphy moved in with her mother in Danville, Virginia, which is where police say the abduction occurred.
Metzger said her sister is “totally just freaking out and beside herself” and feels that she’s to blame.
“It’s just gut-wrenching,” Metzger said.
Kennedy is registered as a sex offender in Asheboro, North Carolina, which about 70 miles (115 kilometers) south of Danville.
North Carolina incarceration records show Kennedy was convicted in 2014 on a felony charge of strangulation and a charge of misdemeanor sexual battery. Sexual battery means he engaged in sexual contact with someone against his or her will or with someone who was mentally disabled or physically incapacitated, according to the state’s criminal code.
Kennedy was required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Assistant Chief Mark Lineberry of the Asheboro Police Department told the Courier-Tribune of Asheboro that the charges stemmed from a report by a woman that Kennedy assaulted her at a home.
Kennedy has an active warrant for failure to register as a sex offender, said sheriff’s Capt. Jason Chabot in Randolph County, where Asheboro is located.
In March, Kennedy was arrested on drug charges, including felony possession of cocaine. The Courier-Tribune reports he was living in nearby Randleman when he was arrested.
Kennedy had met Murphy, the mother of his daughter, a couple of years ago at a nursing home, her sister said. She was a certified nursing assistant and he was a patient in poor health, reportedly from a boating accident, Metzger said.
“Carl does not have anywhere to live,” Metzger said of Kennedy’s current situation. “To the best of our knowledge, he has been floating around at friends’ houses, wherever he can stay. He was evicted in March because he incarcerated at that time.”
Kennedy is described in the police alert as a white man with gray hair, 5 foot 8 inches, weighing 170 pounds, last seen driving a gold 4-door Suzuki, with the North Carolina tag FAA-1873 or EKZ 5093. Police said he has tattoos of skulls on his forearms, an eye on the back of his right hand, a pit bull with “American bulldog” written under it on his upper right arm, and a wizard on his upper left arm.
Emma, police said, was last seen in a light blue onesie.
———
Associated Press reporter Jack Jones contributed to this story from Columbia, South Carolina.
