Hunt for two missing Amish girls in New York

Police patrols searched Thursday morning for two Amish girls, 6-year-old Delila Miller and 12-year-old Fannie Miller, who may have been abducted from a roadside stand in upstate New York, say police.

Authorities are searching for two Amish girls they say may have abducted from a roadside stand near the Canadian border.

The St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office says police patrols are out searching Thursday morning for 6-year-old Delila Miller and 12-year-old Fannie Miller.

Officials issued an Amberl Alert Wednesday evening for the two girls after they were apparently abducted around 7:20 p.m. Wednesday in the rural town of Oswegatchie, 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of the New York State capital, Albany.

Police say the girls went to wait on a customer at the family's roadside fruit and vegetable stand. A witness saw a passenger in a vehicle put something into the back seat, and when the vehicle drove off the children were gone.

Both girls were wearing dark blue dresses with blue aprons and black bonnets.

WSYR-TV Channel 9 in Syracuse, described the girls:

• Fannie Miller, 12, white with brown hair and brown eyes. She is approximately 5 feet tall and weighs about 90 pounds. Fannie was last seen wearing a dark blue dress with blue apron and black bonnet. The victim is also described as crosseyed.

• Delila Miller, 7, white with brown hair and brown eyes. She is approximately 4 feet tall and weighs about 50 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark blue dress with blue apron and black bonnet. Delila also has a round scar on her forehead and is missing front teeth.

St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells says the girls speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and one of the girls speaks English, WWNY-TV in Watertown reports.

Anyone with any information on this abduction is asked to call the St. Lawrence Co. Sheriff's at (866)N Y S-AMBER or dial 911 to provide information on a report or sighting.

Police have received "numerous leads" concerning two Amish girls. Deputies, state troopers, forest rangers and U.S. Border Patrol agents were part of the ongoing search.

 

The rural county is home to New York's second-largest Amish population, which has grown by some 10,000 upstate over the past decade, drawn by productive land and property prices lower than in Pennsylvania.

The  local Amish community was helping law enforcement by getting the word out despite a culture that avoids modern conveniences.

"You'd be surprised how quick word spreads," St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said.

The sheriff said police are looking for a white four-door sedan a witness reported seeing at the farm stand when the girls disappeared.

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