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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Mom, daughter, abducted in Bucks Co.

The woman who made a 9-1-1 call yesterday was stricken with fear.
In a terrified voice, 38-year-old Bonnie Ann Sweeten told how she was grabbed by two men after a minor accident in Lower Southampton Township shortly before 2 p.m., shoved into the back of a Cadillac SUV and driven away.
She said that her 9-year-old daughter, Julia Rakoczy, who had been with her, remained in her vehicle, a GMC SUV. It was not at the scene when cops arrived.
An Amber alert was issued for the girl.
Lt. Frank Vanore, Philadelphia police spokesman, said that the woman told the 9-1-1 operator that she was driving her silver-colored 2005 GMC Denali SUV on Street Road near Southampton Road when it was rear-ended by the black Cadillac Escalade SUV.
She said that she got out of the vehicle and two men jumped out of the Cadillac, grabbed her and forced her into the rear of their vehicle.
“It seems like a very distressed call,” Vanore said. “You could tell she was scared.”
The woman gave her name and how to reach her husband, Richard Larry Sweeten, of Feasterville, but she said nothing about what her abductors might have said to her.
She described the men in the Cadillac only as being black.
Julia Rakoczy was described in the Amber alert as being 4-foot-1 with long brown hair, blue eyes and a dime-sized birthmark on her forehead.
Although the abduction occurred in Bucks County, Vanore said that the 9-1-1 call was traced to a tower that placed it near 12th and Walnut streets, in Center City.
The FBI joined the investigation later in the day.
“We’re treating this as an abduction,” said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver, while acknowledging that there were “inconsistencies” in the woman’s account.
The Denali’s Pennsylvania license number is GYK8998.
Bonnie Sweeten is described as 5-foot-11, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Last evening, the Sweeten home on Saxon Drive near Bristol Road, Feasterville, was the mecca for well-wishers, many of them visibly upset and teary-eyed. There was no one in the house, and visitors stood outside.
Kate Carr, who said that she is Bonnie’s aunt, arrived with her teenage son.
“I’m still in shock,” she said through her tears. “But she’s a good mom. She loves her kids, and she is protecting Julia. I know she’s protecting her.”
Bonnie and her husband, known as Larry, also have an 8-month-old daughter, and Bonnie has another daughter, Paige, 15, by a previous relationship.
Also at the house was Ryan McFadden, 15, who works with Larry Sweeten in Sweeten’s landscaping business, which he operates from his home.
McFadden said that he and his mother heard about the abduction on the news and he came racing to the house.
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 12:15 AM  Permalink | 3 comments
Comments   
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:42 PM, 05/27/2009
    I sure hope this is a hoax. That means the little girl is safe. The facts are fishy. Abduction takes place in Bucks county but phone calls from Center City (OK she could have paniced and not called till then). Abductors let ther keep her cell phone. Does she keep the cell in her pocket while driving? Did they not see it. Did they let her have her purse? No one saw the incident. It was broad daylight. I thought these cars had safty features that allow you to get out of the trunk (maybe she did not know). If child was not also in trunk what kept her from screaming or getting out at a light? If it was a carjacking, why leave the prize in center city? Why even go into center city? If a kidnapping where are the ransom demands? Father speaking to press but not husband seems a little odd. Rereading aunts statement almost sounds like a woman who took off to get out of bad relationship. I could be wrong and therefore owe this woman and her family an apology but I really hope this is a hoax because it means all are safe.
    — towman
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:06 PM, 05/27/2009
    I am sure now this woman pulled a hoax -- and blamed it, as we have heard before, on two black men. She's safe, I betcha.
    — CountryRose


3 comments
About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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