Cops raid house believed to be linked to abduction of 5-year-old

POLICE RAIDED a West Philadelphia home early Friday in connection with the kidnapping last month of a 5-year-girl from Bryant Elementary School.

Items investigators removed from the house included a squawking bird and a carpet, according to sources on the scene.

The kindergartner, who was checked out of her classroom on Jan. 14 by a woman claiming to be her mother, told police she spent time under a bed after being kidnapped. She also said she heard a bird in the house where she had been held prisoner, police have said.

The girl was found nearly naked in an Upper Darby playground the next morning.

Various neighbors on the block, Walton Avenue near Cobbs Creek Parkway, said it's a quiet street where residents keep to themselves. Some neighbors said that a woman and who appeared to be two teenage daughters lived in the house, which is about three blocks from the school, at 60th Street and Cedar Avenue.

Detectives were questioning a 19-year-old girl who lived in the house, the Inquirer reported.

Last week, police said they were looking for a teenage girl as a person of interest in the kidnapping. Authorities believe that a teenager was at the home where a woman and man took the 5-year-old after kidnapping her.

"I'm hoping that there's not any connection or anything like that," said a neighbor on Walton Avenue, who like most residents on the block, did not want her name to be published. "She's a very nice lady. Very respectful. Never had any trouble, no problems or anything."

Another neighbor, Elizabeth China, said detectives have visited her twice in the last week. China said she didn't know the people in the house.

During the raid Friday, China said, she "heard all that noise. It was a whole bunch of noise." She described it as "a lot of traffic and movement."

"I did not come out of my house."