A 10-year-old Louisiana girl who was kidnapped over the weekend was found safe after two sanitation workers located the alleged kidnapper’s vehicle.
The girl had disappeared on Sunday afternoon from a family member’s home in New Iberia, about 20 miles southeast of Lafayette.
The new Iberia police issued an Amber Alert for her and an arrest warrant for her alleged kidnapper, who the police identified as Michael Sereal. Authorities said Sereal was last seen driving a silver Nissan Altima.
Dion Merrick and Brandon Antoine, who work for Pelican Waste & Debris, said they had started their route on Monday morning when they noticed a silver Nissan parked in the middle of a field in St. Martin’s parish.
Merrick said he immediately recognized the Amber Alert car.
“I told the guy to go with me, this is the car. I pulled it forward and stepped back to block the entrance [to the field] and then called 911, “he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Merrick said the driver of the vehicle opened the car door and Antoine recognized him as the Amber Alert suspect. They passed the information on to the 911 dispatcher. The police arrived at the scene in less than a minute.
Merrick detailed the arrival of St. Martin’s Parish deputies in a Facebook Live video that got two million views on Wednesday. In it, the authorities take Sereal into custody while he shouts, “Why are you doing this to me?”
He has since been transferred to New Iberia and charged with qualified kidnapping and failed to register as a sex offender, according to prison records. He is listed in the New Iberia sex offender database for a conviction for carnal knowledge of a young man.
A police department spokeswoman said Sereal was known to one of the girl’s relatives. It was not clear whether he obtained a lawyer.
The girl reunited with her family after the ordeal.
Merrick, a 39-year-old father and veteran of the U.S. Navy, started working for Pelican Waste less than three months ago. He said he didn’t think twice about helping the girl.
“I didn’t want anything to happen to her,” he said. “We are all from the same city. We are a large community, it may be a small city, but we are a very close-knit community, so I had to do what I had to do for my community.”
Pelican Waste & Debris praised Merrick and Antoine for their roles in saving the girl.
“At Pelican Waste, we strive for a family atmosphere and try to convey this to our employees. We are very proud of the genuine efforts of these valuable employees now and always,” said a company spokesman. “It was an exceptional thing that may well have saved a girl’s life.”
