WASHINGTON — A 5-month-old Poolesville infant who police say was abducted by her father Tuesday is now safe.
An Amber Alert was issued for 26-year-old Deare Denny and his daughter Drew Denny after police say he took the child from her mother at her home on Hempstone Avenue.
“He had punched the mother in the face and then drew a gun on the mother,” said Officer Nicole Gamard, with the Montgomery County police. Police say Denny drove off with the little girl in a rented SUV with New Jersey license plates, and with no child safety seat inside.
It happened in the 3 p.m. hour, and an Amber Alert was issued around 6. Sometime after 8:30 p.m., the drama came to an end.
“Mr. Denny has turned himself in to [Prince George’s] County authorities. The baby is safe and sound,” Gamard said. “This is the best possible outcome we
could have hoped for.”
Gamard thanked the public for helping to get the word out: “We had almost 80,000 hits on our Facebook page. It’s really incredible what social media can do.”
Asked why it took hours after the abduction for police to issue an Amber Alert, Gamard said, “We have to work with other agencies to get out the Amber Alert. It is a Maryland state protocol, so we had to work with them, and we didn’t have a tag at that point in time. We had to work on getting the tag for the vehicle and that was needed for the Amber Alert as well. We worked as quickly as possible, and MSP (Maryland State Police) was as helpful as they could be in this situation.
“It was really a joint effort with everybody.”
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