The police had not yet issued a report on the alleged kidnapping of 12-year-old Alanny Fern?ndez and her 16-year-old cousin, Ariel Fern?ndez, on Tuesday. Alanny?s is a US citizen. Julio Fern?ndez, Alanny?s father, said they received a call from the abductors but that a ransom amount was not been established, reports El Caribe.
The children live in La Vega and were on their way to the Christian School in that vicinity. Normally, the school bus would pick them up, but on that morning students were obliged to find alternate ways to get to school after four of the six tires of the bus had been emptied. The Fern?ndez cousins were taken by a gray van some 400 meters away from their school as they traveled on a scooter driven by Ariel. News reports say Alanny?s mother had left for the United States just before the child made her way to school that day.
Diario Libre reports today on the rumors circulating in La Vega, which hint that motivations for the kidnapping could be the alleged debt of Julio Fern?ndez owed to a Dominican resident in Mexico.