Search for abducted toddler from Virginia comes to an end at relatives’ home in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — The father of his two-year-old daughter, who he reportedly abducted in Virginia, is awaiting extradition from the Mecklenburg County Jail.

An Amber Alert was issued on Saturday out of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and on Sunday, the girl was found safe at an apartment in northeast Charlotte.

On Saturday, police in Virginia believed Deandre Dorsey, who was also a fugitive, was on the way to North Carolina.

Charlotte resident John Hosey got the Amber Alert on his phone.

“I try to pay attention,” Hosey said. “I have a child myself so if anything were to happen to him, I would want someone to do the same and be cognizant of the details.”

Hosey had no idea that U.S. Marshals would find the girl across the street from his apartment on Hope Way Lane off Mallard Creek Road near Interstate 485.

“It’s kind of tragic that this kind of thing happens and when it happens this close to home, it makes it more real,” Hosey said.

U.S. Marshals said one of Dorsey’s relatives lives at the apartment.

At about 6 p.m. Sunday, U.S. Marshal Terry Burgin said marshals knocked on their door.

“A person at the home was not being forthcoming,” Burgin said in a statement. “Deandre Dorsey eventually came out and was arrested as a fugitive from Virginia. He denied [the girl] Zuri was in the home. The team located [her] Zuri in the apartment. Some of the (U.S. Marshals) team members stayed at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department with [her] young Zuri, providing her dinner. Around 1 a.m. she was picked up by family.”

Fugitive warrants for Dorsey show he was charged with kidnapping by a parent, burglary, and strangulation, along with nearly a dozen other charges.

Hosey said the situation drove home the importance of the alerts.

“When it does happen that close to you, it makes it real that anything is possible and we really do have to be each other’s neighbors,” he said.

The girl was not harmed, law enforcement stated.

Dorsey’s other charges included another strangulation offense, violating a domestic violence order, and assault on a female, which occurred before the abduction.

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