A man accused of kidnapping a 4-year-old girl from a Suffolk County laundromat was indicted on Thursday.
Carlos Corte, 38, an Ecuadorian national, allegedly promised to bring the child to a ‘secret room,’ when he lured her away from her family, prosecutors say.
As News 12 has reported, the incident happened around 11:30 a.m. on March 28 at Laundry Kingdom in Patchogue.
Corte, who does not know the victim or her family, gestured for her to leave the building with him and took her to the children’s department of the Patchogue-Medford Library.
Librarians originally thought the man was the girl’s father, but alerted security when he told them the girl followed him there, according to the Suffolk DA.
The child’s mother was frantically looking for her daughter once she discovered her missing and eventually found her with Corte.
Corte pleaded not guilty at his indictment arraignment, and Justice John B. Collins ordered him remanded during the pendency of the case.
He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top felony charge of kidnapping in the second degree.