Charlotte Sena’s Alleged Kidnapper Was After Her Grandfather’s Multi-Million Dollar Injury Settlement, Says Ex

Less than a week after Charlotte Sena was found safe, we’re hearing more details about her alleged kidnapper’s possible motives.

As we’ve been reporting, the 9-year-old was on a family camping trip last weekend at Moreau Lake State Park when she mysteriously disappeared without a trace. After nation-wide attention and an exhaustive search party, alleged kidnapper Craig Nelson Ross Jr. was identified by the fingerprints he left behind on a ransom note he dropped in the Sena family’s mailbox. Thankfully, cops found him in a camper near Milton, NY, where Charlotte was hidden away in a kitchen cabinet.

Such a wild series of events, but according to an ex-girlfriend of Ross’, he may have been planning it all for a while…

In a report published by DailyMail.com on Friday, Amanda Preece, who used to date the disgraced suspect, accused Ross of “targeting” Charlotte because of a $2.2 million dollar lawsuit her grandfather, Patrick Sena, won back in 1998 after suffering a gnarly sledding accident — which left him with a broken pelvis and a spinal fracture. Preece explained:

“Charlotte’s grandfather sued the Town of Greenfield years ago, and people around Saratoga are aware of this. I think that’s why he held her ransom, he was hoping to get some of the money because he’s struggling financially.”

Apparently, Ross, who has multiple sclerosis, wanted $50,000 from the Sena family, which his 33-year-old ex thinks would have “set him up for around four or five years.” She told the outlet:

“He’s never wanted to work. He’s always wanted to find people to mooch off of whether it be girlfriends or making his mother feel bad because his MS is so bad.”

According to the outlet, Ross was behind on tax payments for a Porter Corners property — less than TWO miles from the Sena family home — which forced him to move into a camper on his mother’s property in Ballston Spa in the weeks prior to the kidnapping. But Preece believes it all could have been part of an elaborate scheme to have somewhere to keep Charlotte, as she alleged he had been “following her family” and “knew where they lived.” She explained:

“He watched [Charlotte] until she went around one last time and scooped her up. I feel he definitely had this pre-planned. He put up tarp over the windows a few months prior, so I feel like he had been planning it for a while. He has the patience for messed up things like that. The man didn’t work, so in all that time he’s sitting there, drinking, he’s thinking about his next moves. His mother could have seen through the window from her patio — so that’s why he put up the tarp. You don’t just take a child out of nowhere. He waited until she did one final loop on her own, so I think he was watching her for a while.”

Wow.

She added that he could have set his sights on Charlotte after potentially meeting her at the very same fields his own 11-year-old daughter plays softball at:

“I think other people should know that he potentially met Charlotte while she was playing at the same field as his daughter, you never know who he might have come in contact with.”

How completely messed up! She added:

“To go to the campsite where they were at, to know where they lived, and to go to the park when they are there. He definitely had this planned. He’s the type of person where he pre plans and it can be months ahead to do something.”

Disgusting.

Preece, herself, was at one point a victim of Ross’, as she was granted a restraining order against him in 2017 following a domestic dispute, according to the outlet. She explained:

“He always terrorized me and anybody he encounters where he feels that he is mentally stronger than them he will terrorize them. It’s very passive-aggressive where he’ll get right in your face, and he’ll just stare at you and talk. He can whisper and it still gives you the goosebumps and you’re terrified of him. Craig is the type of person who can get right close to a child and sound really evil in their ear and scare them so they’re quiet because he used to do that to his daughter when she was little. He could have done that to Charlotte. He could have scared her so bad on the way to his mother’s that she was absolutely quiet.”

WTF?!

Well, we’re well aware of his his son feels about him… We’re SO glad he was caught and everyone is okay. As of now, he’s been charged with first-degree kidnapping and is being held at the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

What are your thoughts on this latest development, Perezcious readers?? Let us know in the comments down below.

[Images via New York State Police, Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, & CBS New York/YouTube]