Amanda Stamp, 20, left, was abducted at knifepoint Nov. 16, 2003. Stamp’s former boyfriend, Ricardo Lee, 28, right, is responsible for her abduction.
A woman allegedly abducted at knifepoint by her ex-boyfriend and missing since Sunday was rescued by Ottawa police tonight after she made a 911 call from a mall on a cellphone she had kept hidden from her captor.
“She’s safe,” Ottawa police Det. Hugh O’Toole said of 20-year-old Amanda Stamp. “Physically unharmed, but a little shaken up, obviously.”
Ricardo Alexander Lee, 28, was arrested following a brief foot chase at a mall after eight or nine officers rushed to the scene, O’Toole said.
“He’s in custody here in Ottawa,” O’Toole said.
Lee, who was mistakenly released from the Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold, Ont., on Sunday, was considered armed and dangerous.
Ottawa police said Lee was expected to be returned to the Toronto area in the next few days to face charges.
Det.-Const. Jeff Bright of York regional police told Toronto TV station CP24 that Stamp called 911 on a cellphone from Bayshore Mall, and Ottawa police quickly responded.
“She had concealed her cellphone on her person for a period of time,” Bright said.
Lee’s arrest came after days of extensive local media coverage of the case, including two tearful televised pleas for the woman’s safe return by her mother, Katherine Lonergan.
O’Toole said Stamp had contacted her family after being found by police. She faces no charges and is expected to return home in the next couple of days, police said.
Ontario Provincial Police had reported an unconfirmed sighting of Stamp in the village of Havelock, 200 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, this morning.
Stamp was dragged screaming from her apartment in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, on Sunday afternoon, a few hours after officials at the Niagara Detention Centre mistakenly released Lee due to a communications mix-up even though York police had issued a warrant for his arrest.
Police had also specifically asked jail authorities to hold him in custody.
A Canada-wide arrest warrant was subsequently issued for Lee, who has already been accused of abducting the infant son he fathered with Stamp earlier this year.
After being released, police allege that Lee stole a red minivan in St. Catharines before proceeding to Toronto, about an hour away.
There had been a number of possible sightings of Stamp since then.
On Tuesday, she was apparently spotted at a drug store in Brampton, northwest of Toronto, and later in the day at a convenience store in the southwestern town of Walkerton.
On Monday, both Lee and Stamp were apparently seen at a Holiday Inn in Mississauga, west of Toronto, although a hotel videotape showed them in a dark green sport utility vehicle, not a red minivan.
The case has angered Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who called Lee’s mistaken release “absolutely unacceptable” earlier this week.
He also said he wants the province’s jails to implement mandatory checks for outstanding arrest warrants before setting prisoners free in light of Lee’s mistaken release.
Monte Kwinter, Ontario’s minister of community safety, said today there could be disciplinary action against staff at the Niagara Detention Centre depending on the result of a probe into Lee’s release.
“There could be a reprimand, there could be a suspension there could be an outright firing,” he said. “It all depends on if blame is attributed to a particular individual. I won’t know the facts until I get the report.”
Lee had been in custody in Thorold for 11 days for a breach of probation related to contacting Stamp.
York police issued an arrest warrant on Oct. 30 after death threats were made against her.
Lee is also wanted in British Columbia on several other charges, including possession of a dangerous weapon and attempted theft.
