OHP: Abducted Tulsa Girl Found, Suspect In Custody

Sunday, May 4th 2014, 10:29 pm

By: News On 6

Editor's Note: Previous versions of this story identified the victim and subject of an Amber Alert by name. We later removed the child's name due to the nature of the complaints against her alleged kidnapper, Michael Slatton.



Police say an 8-year-old girl abducted from a playground area at the Willowbend Apartments on Sunday night was found safe and is in protective custody.



Investigators also have a suspect in custody, after a search that went well into early Monday morning.



Police say the child was playing on a swing set outside about 7:20 p.m., and a white man pulled up in a small, four-door white car, grabbed her, put her in his car and drove away, police said.



Witnesses said he was last seen heading west on East 31st Street.

Officer Jillian Roberts said the witnesses were mainly other children on the playground, but one adult was nearby and saw part of the abduction.

Police identified Michael Slatton, 33, as a person of interest late Sunday night. Investigators from the Sapulpa Police Department attempted to contact him around 1:15 Monday morning and he took off in a silver Ford Focus.

Slatton was taken into custody about an hour later.

Slatton is a registered sex offender in Oklahoma. According to Department of Corrections records, he was incarcerated until December of last year.

There's no word on what connection, if any, Slatton has to the child.



Roberts said the girl's family said there is no reason to believe a friend or family member would have been the one to take her.

"We're going with, right now, that this is a complete stranger abduction," Roberts said.

