2-year-old girl missing after driver sped off with her in car

Police in western Pennsylvania are frantically searching for a 2-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped by a woman who is now in custody, authorities said Tuesday.

Sharena Islam Nancy, 25, has been charged with kidnapping, interference with custody of children, and concealment of whereabouts of a child, in connection to the disappearance of Nalani Johnson, 2, Allegheny County police said.

Nancy drove off with Nalani after the toddler’s father, 21-year-old Paul Johnson, got out of the car at 5 p.m. Saturday in Penn Hills near Pittsburgh, police said.

Sharena Nancy was arrested in connection with the abduction of Nalani Johnson.Allegheny County Jail

After Johnson reported the alleged abduction to police, officers pulled Nancy over 2 1/2 hours later. But the child was not in the car, police said.

“At the time of that stop, neither the child nor the child’s seat were located in the vehicle,” Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough told reporters Tuesday.

Nancy told investigators that Johnson was selling Nalani for $10,000 and that she helped with the scheme by dropping off the child at a roadside meeting place, police said.

Investigators don’t believe Nancy’s story.

“At this point we have nothing to corroborate or suggest that version of events is credible,” McDonough said.

Nalani Johnson was abducted in Penn Hills, Pa., on Aug. 31, 2019.Allegheny County Police Department

Johnson and Nancy had become “acquainted through social media” in recent months and were “in the beginning of an intermittent romantic relationship,” according to McDonough.

They and a friend of Johnson’s, Justin Rouse, had spent several hours together on Saturday before they got into an argument, police said.

“At that point Mr. Johnson and Mr. Rouse exited the vehicle with the intention of taking Nalani with them and Ms. Nancy pulled away with the child in the vehicle,” McDonough said.