A Fort Bragg soldier has been charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old North Carolina girl, authorities said Monday.
James Murdock Peele was arrested Sunday night and charged with first-degree kidnapping, according to the Craven County Sheriff's Office. He will face more charges, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
The girl's grandmother called police Sunday morning to report that her granddaughter was missing from her New Bern home. The window in the girl's bedroom was open, and a ransom note had been left behind, the grandmother said.
Several agencies, including the FBI and Secret Service, participated in the search for the girl and found her with Peele in Fayetteville, which is near the Army base and more than 100 miles from New Bern. She was returned to her grandmother by Sunday night, and Peele was arrested.
Craven County Sheriff's Department Capt. John Whitfield told The Associated Press that investigators began looking at Peele because he and the girl were Facebook friends.
