Desperate Search for Missing 4-Year-Old S.C. Girl Whose Mom Was Beaten in Possible Home Invasion
Police are searching for a 4-year-old girl from the Charleston, South Carolina, area, who went missing Tuesday night after her mother was beaten in a possible home invasion, authorities allege.
The child, Heidi Renae Todd, was reported missing at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday night in the area of 2985 Sweetleaf Lane in the Whitney Lake subdivision on Johns Island, the Charleston Police Department said in a statement on Twitter.
The little girl vanished after an “uninvited” man who had come to the family’s home allegedly brutally beat her mother, say authorities, who are still investigating a motive, the Post and Courier reports.
The mother, who was scheduled to undergo surgery for her injuries, gave investigators a limited description of the suspect: a Hispanic male said to be “skinny, 25-30 years old with short hair & dressed in all grey,” Charleston police said on Twitter.
The FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for information about Heidi’s disappearance.
Police were alerted to Heidi’s disappearance after her mother did not show up at a school to pick up two of her four other children, according to the Post and Courier. The woman’s husband is in the Coast Guard and was out of town for training, officials said.
SLED will issue a state wide BOLO for missing 4 year old Heidi Todd who was last seen wearing pink pants & blue shirt. She may be with a Hispanic male, skinny, 25-30 years old with short hair & dressed in all grey.
— Charleston P.D. (@CharlestonPD) February 14, 2018
The child was last seen wearing pink pants and a blue shirt, say police, who do not know how long the child has been missing, the Post and Courier reports.
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Her mother was taken to the hospital just before midnight Tuesday night, local station Live 5 News reports.
She was in “reasonably fair condition under the circumstances,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a press conference Wednesday. She had been able to answer only limited questions from police, Tecklenburg added.
As well-wishers offered prayers for the little girl on social media, hoping for her safe return, police, firefighters, the U.S. Coast Guard and dive teams spent more than nine hours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning searching a nearby lake and woods in the area for the child, the Post and Courier reports.
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Anyone with information on Heidi or her whereabouts can call 843-743-7200 and ask for the on-duty Charleston police central detective. Police have also established a 24-hour tip line that may be reached at 843-619-6123.
