Crime & Safety
Missing Worcester 3-Year-Old, Mom Found Alive
Leeann Rickheit is being charged with attempted murder after police found the two in a running car with the tailpipe blocked.
WORCESTER, MA — A missing 3-year-old Worcester girl and her mother were found alive in a wooded area in Charlton Thursday morning, police said. Both were conscious and alert in a car when police located them in a running car with the tailpipe stuffed with clothing. A trooper smashed the window of the car to remove Rickheit and the child.
An Amber Alert was called Wednesday night as police searched for a 3-year-old girl in "extreme danger" who was taken by her mother, state police said. Ella Abbot was taken at 7:45 p.m. from her Greenwood Street home by her mother, Leeann Rickheit, who allegedly made threats Wednesday night to harm Abbot.
Rickheit, 38, was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital under police guard. She will be arraigned on charges of attempted murder, assault and battery on a child, and reckless endangerment of a child. Abbott was transported to UMass Medical Center.
They were found in a wooded area that police said Rickheit was known to frequent, on the backside of a pond located through the woods behind the Country Store on Stafford Street.
Police report that the child is doing well and that Rickheit was held at the state police barracks in Sturbridge under police guard.
She is being arraigned on charges of attempted murder, assault and battery on a child, and reckless endangerment of a child.
The location where VFAS Troopers found the suspect and victim in the car was on the backside of a pond located through the woods behind the Country Store, 131 Stafford Street, Charlton. She
Photos via State Police
