What to Know
- An Amber Alert was issued for 6-year-old Aylin Sofia Hernandez
- Her father is a suspect in a deadly stabbing in Bridgeport, Connecticut
- The daughter was recovered in Pennsylvania and the father was in custody
The missing 6-year-old girl who was the subject of an Amber Alert Friday morning was safely located after an eight-hour multi-state manhunt, Pennsylvania police said.
Police had been looking for Aylin Sofia Hernandez and her father Oscar Hernandez since the 39-year-old Hernandez fled his Bridgeport home after allegedly stabbing her mother, 26-year-old Nidia Gonzalez, to death.
A neighbor placed a 911 call to police around 2:45 a.m. Friday about a disturbance at 69 Greenwood St., Bridgeport Police Captain Brian Fitzgerald said at a press conference.
When officers arrived, they found a small, cramped one-story basement apartment that was described by police earlier as a blood-soaked, gruesome scene that characterized the "ugly side of domestic violence."
Authorities weren't sure if Gonzalez and Hernandez were still together at the time of her attack.
Law enforcement officials also found evidence of people drinking in the apartment.
Another woman, possibly the mother's friend, was stabbed 14 times but survived. She underwent surgery at St. Vincent Medical Center and is in critical, but stable condition, Fitzgerald said. She is expected to survive.
The hunt for Oscar Hernandez -- an El Salvador national who had previously been deported -- led police from Connecticut to New York City, where he had been spotted at some point in the Bronx, to Pennsylvania, where a Pennsylvania state trooper spotted his vehicle at around 11:15 a.m.
Local
Hernandez led police on a pursuit on Interstate 99 until he hit multiple cars and crashed his vehicle with his daughter inside. He was taken into custody and brought to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries. Two state troopers sustained minor injuries.
Little Aylin suffered minor head and leg injuries from the crash. Authorities say she's fine and will be returned to her family.
"It's all good," said Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim. "Because of the efforts of so many, the fact that she's going to be safe and returned... it's a great moment."
"This doesn't just happen by accident, they delivered this little girl home," said Bridgeport Police Chief Armando Perez. "She lost her mom and her father, her life has changed forever. We will embrace her and do whatever we have to do to take care of her."
Neighbors and family members were in disbelief.
"He should not have done this, any woman don't deserve this," his cousin said. "If you're not happy with your wife, just go away. But no heart, you leave a child with no father and no mother, that's sad."
"I really don't understand how a man just look at a woman and stabs her," said Delores Witter.
Hernandez was deported from Hartford, Connecticut in the fall of 2013, according to Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He has prior felony convctions from 2002 for assault and threatening, as well as several misdemeanor convictions.
Hernandez had not been encountered by ICE since he was deported, and authorities had no information about him being back in the U.S. since then.
ICE has placed an immigration detainer with the Bridgeport Police Department, which means if Hernandez is released for any reason -- including on bond -- he will be released to ICE, said Neudauer.
