COLUMBUS, Ohio – A five-year-old Gahanna girl who was the subject of a statewide Amber Alert is safe and her non-custodial father is facing a charge of abduction after he allegedly took her from her home and tried to take her to North Carolina.
An Ohio State Highway Patrol spotted a car on U.S. route 33 in the Logan area with a man, woman and child inside. The man and child fit the descriptions of Nicholas and Ella Barnhart, who were the subjects of an Amber Alert issued less than an hour earlier, Gahanna public information manager Níel Jurist said.
The third occupant of the car was a woman whose identity was not released and who was brought in for questioning by Gahanna police, Jurist said.
Nicholas Barnhart, 32, allegedly took Ella from her home in the Vista apartment complex around 3:15 p.m. and was believed to be trying to take her to his home state of North Carolina. Jurist says Barnhart was known to carry weapons and should be considered armed and dangerous.
Gahanna police, Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the Ohio State Highway Patrol coordinated the search and investigation with help from North Carolina authorities, Jurist said.
A trooper patrolling U.S. route 33 spotted a Honda Civic with a North Carolina license plate at approximately 4:49 p.m., pulled the car over and detained Barnhart while Gahanna police got an arrest warrant for abduction, Jurist says.
Ella Barnhart was safe and uninjured, Jurist said.