Six individuals are facing federal criminal charges in the Indianapolis abduction case that police say may have been narcotics-related.
About 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Amber Alert for the abduction of Indianapolis teens Aaron and Emma Blackwell was called off once they had both been found alive.
Now, John “Jay” Thomas, Bernando “C-Note” Reeves, Ali Hussain Ashore, Mohammed “Moe” or “MJ” Karkash, April Sandell and Alaa “Alex” or “Big Boi” Al-Salehi have been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Statutory penalties upon conviction for this crime include a maximum of life imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000.
According to a probable cause affidavit from the Southern Indiana District Court of the United States, Thomas claims the teens’ sister, Whitney Blackwell, with whom he used to live and be in a relationship in Detroit, stole $120,000, a kilogram of cocaine and 4,000 OxyContin pills from him.
At about 2:30 a.m. Monday, three black males kicked in the door of the home where the teens were along with their mother and their mother’s friend, according to the affidavit.
The kidnappers asked where the money was and when the teens’ mother said she didn’t know, the kidnappers bound the two teens’ hands with zip ties and took them out of the house forcefully. The teens were kidnapped at gunpoint, according to the affidavit.
Ransom calls were made to Stanley Blackwell, the teens’ brother, shortly after the kidnapping. The kidnapper told him to meet them with the money in Miami within 24 hours, Stanley said, according to the affidavit.One call threatened to “chop the kids’ fingers off” if the ransom wasn’t met, according to the affidavit.
Whitney, the teens’ sister, believed Thomas was responsible for the kidnapping of her siblings because she had stolen from him.
Law enforcement tracked cell signals from the ransom phone as it went from Indianapolis to an address in Detroit, which was where they found Ashore and Reeves entering an SUV. A search of the SUV revealed Aaron, 16, blindfolded with his hands bound, in the luggage department. By the time Aaron was found, he had been passed along through a series of kidnappers, according to the affidavit.
Kidnappers had cut his finger during questioning. His wrists were bruised and his finger had to be stitched, according to the affidavit.
Emma Blackwell, 13, was put into a separate vehicle than her brother was when she was abducted. She was also driven from Indianapolis to Detroit, the affidavit reads.
There, she was transferred to another car. Emma believes a black male and a white female drove her to a remote location in Kentucky and took her to a house there.
Emma reportedly overheard her abductors saying they were worried about the weather before dropping her off at a Taco Bell in Dayton, Ohio, where they told her to take a taxi home, according to the affidavit.
Using $200 her abductors gave her and with the help of Taco Bell employees, she was able to obtain a taxi ride from Dayton back to the home from which she was kidnapped in Indianapolis.
When she got home, nobody else was at the siblings' 1215 N. Lasalle St. address, according to the affidavit.
Emma began Facebook messaging a classmate, who called police around 2 a.m. Tuesday.
Soon after, Emma’s mother asked law enforcement to go check the house. She had not slept there since the abduction, according to the affidavit.
Police found Emma at the Lasalle address, according to the affidavit.
