The Greene County Sheriff’s office is looking for more information regarding the alleged attempted abduction in Grand Junction on Monday.
Sheriff Steve Haupert says Tauwana Laue called to report an attempted abduction at 11:38am on Monday at the intersection of 12th Street South and Hager Street, just north of the Greene County Intermediate School. The woman told investigators that she was walking her pit bull dog and she had her three year-old daughter on her bike about a half block away when she saw a white van pulled up and a white male wearing a ski mask tried to grab her daughter. That’s when the pit bull got free from its leash and bit the alleged abductor and the white male got back inside the van and it took off westbound on Hager Street.
Haupert states that they put on a statewide search of the reported white, cargo van that had no windows or license plates within 10 minutes after the call was first reported to the Sheriff’s office.
The school building had video surveillance of that same intersection and Haupert adds that they couldn’t find any evidence that the incident actually happened at that location.
“The Sheriff’s office is not saying in fact it didn’t happen, we’re just saying that we know for a fact that it did not happen where she first led us to and showed us the area where the alleged abduction had taken place.”
Haupert notes they recovered blood samples from the pit bulls teeth and Laue has agreed to take a polygraph test to determine the validity of her statement and depending on the polygraph results, they may send in the blood samples for further testing.
However, Haupert is also asking for the public’s help for more information.
“We’re asking for, if anyone saw anything in the area that would corroborate her statement as to what happened and where it happened and we would very much like them to come forward and we would like to talk with them.”
He says they are taking this situation very seriously since there’s been two other attempted abduction this week reported in Webster County.