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Public Safety

Driver Cuts Off Suspect And Fresno Girl Found Safe

This photo provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows Elisa Cardenas, 8, of Fresno, Calif.
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
This photo provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows Elisa Cardenas, 8, of Fresno, Calif.

Police say an 8-year-old girl who was abducted while playing outside a Fresno home escaped from her captor after a driver cut off the suspect's vehicle.

Elisa Cardenas was found in Fresno Tuesday morning about 11 hours after she disappeared, triggering an Amber Alert.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said the driver was following a truck that matched the description of the abductor's vehicle. The driver recognized the truck from media reports, which showed surveillance video of the vehicle.

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Dyer said when the driver saw Elisa's head in the window, he cut the truck off and Elisa bolted.

She was taken to a hospital and was in good condition.

The suspect's pickup truck was later spotted by authorities and he was arrested in the parking lot of an apartment complex.

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