The man who kidnapped a 9-year-old girl from a New York campground last year and held her captive for nearly three days was sentenced to 47 years to life in prison for his crimes.
Craig Ross pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping and predatory sexual assault of a child, as CrimeOnline reported. He was accused of snatching the 9-year-old girl from her bike at Moreau Lake State Park on September 30, prompting an Amber Alert and a desperate search that ended at his camper in his mother’s back yard.
Investigators were led there after finding a fingerprint on a ransom note he dropped at the girl’s home.
Saratoga County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Buckley read a victim impact statement from the victim, who did not attend the hearing, at Thursday’s sentencing.
“You were haunting my thoughts, but now, I will be haunting yours,” the prosecutor read, according to WTEN. “Eventually, I might forget you, but you won’t forget me. You will never be able to affect anyone again.”
“I felt alone. Now you will be alone, too,” she wrote, according to the Times Union. “Someone will always be watching you, like someone was watching me. You’ll be treated wrong, like I was treated wrong.”
“You will crumble, and I will be standing tall,” she wrote, adding that she hopes to be a therapist when she grows up.
Other family members spoke to Ross as well.
“There will never be a sentence that is sufficient for what you did to my daughter,” the girl’s mother said. “You were shown leniency.”
“Even after what you did to her, she was so concerned for your cat,” she said to Ross. “And she asked if you did this to her because someone did it to you.”
Ross was sentenced to 25 years to life on the kidnapping charge and 22 years to life on the rape charge, to served consecutively.
“He will be 93 years old when he’s even eligible to talk about parole consideration,” Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen told reporters in February.
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[Featured image: FILE – Craig Ross at his November 2023 arraignment. Will Waldron/The Albany Times-Union via AP, file]
