Crime News
Abducted girl was assaulted, sister reveals
By ANA RHODES
Apr 13, 2003, 16:29

A 17-year-old mentally disabled girl was abducted from a Fort Lauderdale bar early Saturday, prompting law enforcement officials to activate an Amber Alert.

The girl was found in the lobby of a condominium at Oakland Park Boulevard and State Road A1A about 12 hours after she disappeared from Blondie's on the Beach, 229 S. Atlantic Ave., Fort Lauderdale police said.

Her 19-year-old sister said in an interview late Saturday that the girl was sexually assaulted.

''She was raped,'' the sister said. ``When you ask her what happened, she'll point to what hurts but she can't explain what happened.''

The girl was at the bar with her father when she disappeared around 12:20 a.m. Saturday, police said. Her father was playing pool while the girl played a video game. Fort Lauderdale police released no other information on the case.

A surveillance video shows a man approach the girl twice in the arcade area. The second time she walked out of the bar with him.

The girl suffers from Angelman syndrome, a chromosomal disorder involving mental retardation and specific physical abnormalities.

''She's a sweet, happy girl,'' her sister said. ``She doesn't let things get to her. Even when they picked her up she was smiling and happy and didn't know what was going on.''

Police searched for the girl all night and handed out fliers as part of the Amber Alert, an emergency information system created after the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Texas.

WFOR-Channel 4 and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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