A man accused of abducting a 12-year-old Roanoke County girl after her mother was found dead says the child willingly accompanied him on a cross-country trip.
The Roanoke Times reports that Jeffrey Easley said in a letter from jail that "I did not kidnapp her or take her aginest her will." The letter doesn't mention the Dec. 6 slaying of 41-year-old Tina Smith, Brittany Smith's mother and Easley's girlfriend.
Easley claims in his letter to the newspaper, postmarked Thursday from the Western Virginia Regional Jail, that he'd promised to Smith that he'd protect her daughter.
His lawyer, Thomas Roe, declined to discuss the letter.
Police have charged Easley with abducting the girl, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8. No one has yet been charged in Smith's slaying.
Brittany, Easley and Easley's car were reported missing the same day of Smith's death. Police found Easley and the girl a week later, camping in downtown San Francisco.
Roanoke County police Lt. Chuck Mason said in a statement on Friday that his detectives and the county prosecutor's office have been actively investigating "the crimes committed against Tina and Brittany Smith." Mason decllined to answer questions about the case.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
UPDATE December 19, 2010 10:55 PM:
A memorial service has been held for the slain mother of a 12-year-old Virginia girl who was allegedly abducted and taken to California.
The Roanoke Times reports that 12-year-old Brittany Smith attended the service for 41-year-old Tina Smith on Saturday in South Boston.
The girl went missing after authorities found the body of her mother at her Roanoke County home Nov. 29. Tina Smith's boyfriend, 32-year-old Jeffrey Easley, is charged with abducting Brittany Smith. The girl was with Easley when police arrested him Dec. 10 outside a San Francisco supermarket.
Easley is due in court for a preliminary hearing in February.
UPDATE December 12, 2010 10:55 PM:
Roanoke investigators are on their way back to Virginia after sitting down with 12-year-old Brittany Smith and her accused abductor Jeffrey Easley in California Sunday.
Smith was found unharmed Friday in San Francisco with Easley. Police say the pair had been panhandling outside an area supermarket.
Police won't say what they discussed with the Smith or Easley Sunday, but they say Smith will be returning to Virginia soon.
Investigators say the case has now shifted to the murder investigation of Brittany's mother Tina Smith.
Police say Easley is a prime suspect in the case.
UPDATE December 11, 2010 8:41 PM:
Roanoke County investigators have arrived in California to interview Brittany Smith.
Saturday, Roanoke County police chief Ray Lavinder said that Jeffrey Scott Easley is a suspect in the murder of Tina Smith, but has not been charged with her death. Right now he's being held on a kidnapping charge.
Police have also found the car police say Easley drove across the country with Brittany Smith. It was found in a parking lot near San Francisco's airport, far away from where the two were found.
Lavinder added in a press conference Saturday that he still believes that someone helped Easley escape Virginia.
Original Story:
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - A 12-year-old girl who had been missing for a week was found unharmed Friday after she and the man accused in her abduction were recognized in a store in San Francisco, police said.
Brittany Mae Smith has since been in touch with her family in Virginia, while Jeffrey Scott Easley, 32, was in police custody in San Francisco, Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder said at a news conference.
The two hadn't been seen since Dec. 3, when they were captured on store surveillance video at a Walmart in Salem, about five miles from Roanoke.
The girl's mother and Easley's girlfriend, Tina Smith, was found dead on Monday their home in southwestern Virginia. The cause of death has not been released but police consider it a homicide.
Police have refused to say whether they consider Easley a suspect in the mother's death, but they said Friday that the investigation of the slaying would ramp up now that the search for the girl is over.
San Francisco police said a woman spotted them both around 2 p.m. Pacific time in front of a supermarket in the city's Outer Richmond neighborhood.
The woman called 911 after recognizing Easley and Smith from a cable news program about the alleged abduction, said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman.
Easley was arrested without incident. The girl is currently in child protective custody and Easley is in San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping.
Esparza said the girl is cooperating with police. Police are still looking into what connection Easley and the girl may have to the San Francisco Bay area.
Asked if Easley forced Brittany on the cross-country trip, Lavinder said he didn't know.
"We're just getting bits and pieces of the facts right now," he said.
The girl was aware that her mother had been found dead. She had no signs of physical injury.
Lavinder did not know if Easley had any connections to the San Francisco area or how the pair traveled the 2,320 miles to get there. Roanoke authorities planned to travel to California as soon as possible.
Brittany's disappearance had generated more than 700 tips to Roanoke County police, who earlier Friday said they were deeply concerned after finding no trace of the girl after days of searching.
Lavinder said he had a "tremendous sense of relief" that Brittany had been found.
After learning that her granddaughter was safe, Liz Dyer told The Roanoke Times: "We're so glad. We're bouncing off the walls."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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