Two people have been convicted in a child abduction case which triggered a rare amber alert in this province.
The week-long drama played out in June of 2023, and involved a 72-year-old man’s attempt to rendezvous with a 14-year-old girl, and return with her to his home in New Brunswick.
There is a court ban on any information that could identify the girl, including the nature of their relationship.
But there’s no ban on Will Crockwell’s name, or the two friends recruited to carry out the plan — 65-year-old Erin Bast and a 71-year-old man whose charges have since been dropped.
And while Crockwell and Bast were convicted of child abduction, court has heard the 14-year-old wanted to run away from her group home.
Wilbur Jerome Crockwell, 72, of New Brunswick, accused of child luring and abduction in connection with last week’s Amber Alert, is escorted to provincial court in St. John’s this afternoon. Crockwell was returned to jail with his bail hearing now set for Friday. @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/TZtW5nvvRe
— Brian Callahan (@briancallahan67) June 14, 2023
Court heard Crockwell and the girl knew each other since 2016, and had been texting back and forth about her situation, including this one from March 2023, two months before the incident.
She texted Crockwell: “I’m honestly thinking about running away. I cant take this anymore and idc if ur there to help me find a way. I cut my hair off fuck up my face change me completely and leave somewhere. Steal shit to live and hide.”
Crockwell replies: “Hang in there my love.”
Bast met the girl at the Avalon Mall on June 2 and drove her to a cabin on the Bay d’Espoir Highway, where they waited for Crockwell.
But little did they know police were on to them, intercepting communications and tailing Crockwell from the Port aux Basques ferry to a Badger gas bar, where he was arrested, along with the others at the cabin.
The girl was not physically harmed and was brought back to St. John’s.
Crockwell and Bast will be sentenced for child abduction and conspiracy to commit the offence, while an additional charge of child luring against Crockwell was withdrawn.
The sentencing hearing, which began on Friday, won’t resume until mid-June due to scheduling conflicts.
