New Kensington woman says 'bad day' caused her to report someone tried to abduct daughter

A New Kensington woman can’t explain why she told police two people tried to abduct her 3-year-old daughter when, she admits, it never happened.

“It was just a bad day,” Jacqueline Charlton, 60, said when reached at her home Wednesday. “I had a lot going on.”

Charlton’s report on Oct. 1 triggered a large response by police, who detained and questioned two people she identified as the abductors. In a criminal complaint, police said Charlton admitted no one tried to take her daughter after police confronted her with video from a neighbor’s house.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t take it back. I’m just sorry for it.”

New Kensington police charged Charlton on Wednesday with making a false report, which is a second-degree misdemeanor.

Charlton told a reporter that she has seven grown children and is now caring for two adopted sisters, ages 3 and 9.

According to the criminal complaint, police were alerted to the reported abduction in the 200 block of Sixth Avenue shortly after 3 p.m. Oct. 1.

Police said Charlton told them two people tried to carry the 3-year-old away, one holding her by the shoulders and the other by the legs. She claimed to have confronted them and gotten her daughter back.

She gave police a description of the abductors, who she said walked away down the railroad tracks that run along Sixth Avenue.

Numerous police officers responded and established a perimeter. The city’s police dog, Deuce, was brought in to track them down.

As they searched, residents were flagging down officers with the last known locations of the suspects. Officers detained two people they were being told were involved in the attempted abduction, and Charlton positively identified them.

Police took the two people to the station, where they were interviewed separately and “gave consistent statements,” the complaint said.

Police said they obtained video from a neighbor showing the area in which the abduction was claimed to have taken place. Police said the video shows Charlton and her daughter hanging Halloween decorations; only one other person is seen.

Questioned at the police station, Charlton allegedly again said that someone tried to abduct her daughter and gave the same descriptions. When shown the video, Charlton allegedly admitted that no one had tried to take her daughter.

According to the complaint, Charlton told police she had lost sight of her daughter for only a moment. When she did, she contacted her husband and told him that “someone tried to take” their daughter. She allegedly said her husband told her to contact police.

Charlton told a reporter that the girl had gone under a trampoline in the fenced-in yard.

“She was here. She was in my yard. She just got away from my sight,” she said. “It scared me.”

Charlton didn’t have an answer for why she lied.

“It’s been a hard month,” she said. “It’s been hard this year for everybody. That doesn’t excuse what I did. It doesn’t excuse anything.”

Charlton is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Nov. 5 before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.