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Father of Elyria girl nearly abducted: 'Another child might not be as lucky as my daughter'

Posted at 8:55 PM, Aug 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-31 09:31:21-04

There is an urgency to find a child predator before he strikes again and the FBI needs the public's help to identify the man.

The first time police said the man crawled through the window of an Elyria home and tried to snatch a 10-year-old girl from her bed.

"He had a hold of her legs," said the girl's dad, Ray Bondi. The girl managed to run to her dad but he got away, that was February.

Three months later the FBI said the same man grabbed a child out of a West 104th home in Cleveland. He took her to a home and held her captive for hours before dropping off the child in a neighborhood near where she was taken. 

"I play a lot of what ifs, what if I had seen him," said Bondi.

The FBI has linked the two cases through evidence and an app that might have played a role in the man targeting the houses. 

The FBI said the man was driving a 2002 or 2003 Chevy Malibu with a front panel that was a different color than the car. The man was driving the car back in May. The Cleveland girl told investigators there was a man and a woman at the home she was taken into, that someone was cooking chicken, they called him for lunch and then told him through the door that they were leaving.

abdution

Police do not suspect the man and woman had any idea the girl was being held in a bedroom. 

It is critical that police track down the man before he strikes again.

"Another child might not be as lucky as my daughter," said Bondi. 

The family has added an alarm, security cameras and lights to protect themselves. 

There is a $20,000 reward being offered. If you have any information you are asked to call the FBI at 216-522-1400.