Published on Sunday, March 25, 2007
in the Ocala Star Banner

Trooper arrests suspect in girl's kidnap attempt

OCALA - A man wanted on charges of trying to kidnap an 8-year-old girl in front of her grandparents at a truck stop last week has been captured.

Michael David Gherardi, 47, was arrested Thursday at an Interstate 10 rest stop near Milton by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper conducting a security check, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

The trooper had noticed a sleeping couple in a blue 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis off to the side of the rest stop parking lot. It matched the information of a vehicle connected to the March 15 attempted kidnapping at the Pilot Travel Center on County Road 326.

Gherardi, of Hollywood, and his companion, Janet Anderson Stein, were taken into custody. Gherardi was booked into the Santa Rosa County jail on a warrant for attempted kidnapping of a minor and simple battery, according to officials there.

Sue Livoti, spokeswoman with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, said Gherardi will be transported back to Marion County at a later date.

"I'm very ecstatic," said Alan Neuville from his Orlando home Thursday. He is grandfather and guardian of the child. "He needs to be in jail."

Neuville said he and his wife, Phyllis, and the grandchild, who has Down syndrome, had stopped at the business for gas. The girl was walking through the parking lot with her grandmother when the woman felt a tug and noticed an unknown man holding her granddaughter and trying to take her away.

Alan Neuville, 59, ran over from his car and pulled the girl away from the man and tried to stop him from leaving the scene. The men began to fight, as the grandmother grabbed the child. At some point, the assailant called to a female passenger in the blue 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis, who got in the driver's seat while he got in the back seat. The couple fled.

Witnesses were able to give a description of the car, and Gherardi was identified in a surveillance tape at the store.

Neuville said he did not know of Gherardi before the attempted kidnapping and has no idea why the assailant tried to grab the child. Sheriff's Maj. Chris Blair said that's one of the answers he hope his investigators can determine in talks with the suspect.

Stein is the owner of the car and has not been charged, but is being questioned, Blair said.