Kidnapped at Age 4, Stephen Johnson was Rescued—25 years Later he Joins the NYPD and Reunites with the Former Detectives who Once Saved him from a ‘Creepy’ Child Molester

Key Points:

The stories of children being abducted for ransom are nothing short of horror stories. But sometimes, children go missing without leaving a trace, leaving numerous questions unanswered and making us wonder: Who kidnapped them? Why were they kidnapped?

Stories of children finding their way back home are rare, as around 840,000 children are reported missing every year. According to the Child Crime Prevention & Safety Centre in the United States, a child goes missing every 40 seconds.

Amidst this horror, there have been some tales of children finding their way back home. Immediate rescue operations conducted by police departments often play a monumental role in such cases, but not every child is able to escape the shackles of abductors.  Some victims return to their homes after a few days, while others take decades to come back. 

The story of Stephen Johnson is one such tale, where a young boy returned to his family after being abducted. His story made headlines 25 years later, as if life had completed a whole new circle on its own.

Years later, Stephen Johnson joined the NYPD (New York city Police Department) and was reunited with the police officers who had rescued him from his dangerous, terrifying and perverted kidnapper.

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What happened on October 23, 1999?

Little Stephen Johnson was a four-year-old child when he was kidnapped on the afternoon of October 23, 1999, from a Manhattan playground. He was playing with his sister at Chelsea Park on 27th Street near 10th Avenue.

His mother, Michele Montes, was standing at a short distance when, suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the young boy vanished. The then commander of Manhattan detectives, Chief William Taylor, stated that the abductor must have grabbed the young boy by his arms and coerced him into leaving the park with him.

Investigations to rescue young Stephen were authorized immediately. The four-year-old was held captive overnight while the probe to find him continued meticulously. His photographs were telecasted by various broadcast channels and were distributed around the Elliot-Chelsea houses.

Stephen’s photos and description were circulated by the police and neighbours everywhere to find any possible trace of the young boy. His captor, Tony Sanchez, was a 39-year-old park maintenance worker who abandoned the four-year-old Stephen at the Bronx subway station after he saw his photographs all over the broadcast channels.

Sanchez reportedly told the token agent at the Bronx station that he had found a missing child and then ran away. Former detectives Richard O’Brien and James Rice comforted the panic-stricken boy and assisted in reuniting him with his mother.

The detectives later arrested the convicted sex offender Sanchez, who had previously pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl back in 1994.

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Where is Stephen Johnson now?

The tragic night was not the end of Stephen’s story. Life came full circle after 25 years when the young boy, once a victim, grew up to join the NYPD. On the day of his recruitment, he was reunited with former detectives Brien and Rice, the officers who rescued him from a sexual predator over two decades earlier.

Now 39, Stephen expressed his deep gratitude to the detectives for saving him from a night that could have been far worse.

Sanchez had reportedly taken young Stephen to a pizza place before changing his clothes. He made him wear pajamas and later slept naked next to the four-year-old. According to the police, Sanchez did not molest Stephen.

Stephen’s eyes filled with tears when he saw the men who had saved him from the darkest night of his life. The detectives surprised him at the police department’s Gun & Shield Day ceremony.

Stephen explained that his calling to become a police officer stemmed from that night when Brien and Rice comforted him at a moment of desperate fear. Speaking at the ceremony, he said, “Somebody was able to make me feel calm, and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be a police officer.”

The incident was so traumatic that the fear lingered for many years. His mother once said that even the sound of a doorbell “made him (Stephen) jump.” But years later, Stephen Johnson is a police officer himself. His reunion with his rescuers was a symbolic moment, completing a circle in his life. Former detective Richard O’Brien  told the young man he once saved, “We are proud of you.”

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