Kidnapped child located by Putnamville trooper

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Gil Landaverde

TERRE HAUTE -- A Whitehall, Ohio, girl was found safe Wednesday after being taken from outside her home by a family member without her parents’ knowledge.

Detectives from the Whitehall Police Department tracked the vehicle, which was then believed to have been used in kidnapping the four-year-old. The Indiana State Police were notified of the missing child and of the possibility of the vehicle’s location.

Trooper Andrew Mattern of the Putnamville State Police Post located the suspected vehicle, believed to have the missing girl, traveling on Interstate 70 near the 10-mile marker and initiated a traffic stop. During the stop, Mattern found the girl unharmed inside the vehicle.

The family member who kidnapped the four-year-old was identified as Gil Landaverde, 37, of Indianapolis. It was revealed that Landaverde also had an arrest warrant out of Marion County for an unrelated kidnapping of another child.

Landaverde was taken into custody on the active warrants from Whitehall, Ohio, and Marion County. He was transported to the Vigo County Jail where he is currently being held on these warrants.

This is an ongoing investigation by the Whitehall Police Department. The Indiana State Police will continue to assist.

The four-year-old girl was turned over to the Vigo County Department of Child Services and is being reunited with family members.

The Terre Haute Police Department and Eddington’s Wrecker Service have also assisted with the investigation.

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Fair trial followed by a first-class hanging in the public square would be a good resolution to this situation.

Broadcast it on one of those digital channels... we can do without one of the QVCs for a while... and put a camera trained on his corpse until the crows have had their fill.

This is how you deal with evil.

No mercy.

Make it known that this is how we deal with evil.

-- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Thu, Aug 13, 2020, at 12:00 PM
DPR--we finally agree on this same idea.

-- Posted by donantonio on Thu, Aug 13, 2020, at 2:35 PM
So say we all.

-- Posted by techphcy on Thu, Aug 13, 2020, at 10:05 PM
Kudos Trooper Mattern! So many of these thugs "slip through the cracks" and these children disappear! Thank you for all you do!

-- Posted by jake71 on Fri, Aug 14, 2020, at 1:30 PM
And has kidnapped previously?! Pirate while I agree with you for the most part, I would prefer a stoning opposed to a hanging. This avenue of punishment would require him to suffer a tad longer and make for a better public viewing event.

-- Posted by laura.martin.baseball on Sat, Aug 15, 2020, at 1:28 PM
Agreed!! What a piece. It's people like this that I am armed anywhere I go. He's lucky the police located them first. I would most definitely have taken matters into my own hands while attempting to rescue a child.

-- Posted by Hmmmmm on Mon, Aug 17, 2020, at 10:53 AM

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