When Amy’Leigh de Jager was dropped off on the street, close to the Shakespeare Inn in Vanderbijlpark, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, her kidnappers were effectively throwing in the towel.

Only now, as the dust begins to settle, can we see just how quickly their plans fell apart, in the face of a sustained effort from the community, and much work behind the scenes.

Hannes van Zyl, one of the first responders to Amy-Leigh being found, has already spoken about the emotions he felt after Amy’Leigh was safely returned.

Everyone involved in her return deserves praise, but the hostage negotiators are now being hailed as the “unseen heroes”, reports TimesLIVE:

Their unseen brinkmanship played out in a nondescript office at the Vanderbijlpark police station in the hours after her abduction on Monday, and played a critical role in the police response to the chilling crime…

Veteran police negotiator Colonel Ernst Strydom said the negotiation around Amy’Leigh, which spanned the 19 hours she was missing, would have been an “emotional storm”.

“It is an extremely difficult position to be placed in, but this is why we train. We, as negotiators, must steel ourselves against getting caught up in the emotion of the situation,” he told Times Select.

“You always feel responsible for what is happening, and it is so difficult to separate yourself from that. While objectively we know that the perpetrator of the crime is behind the action that got us there, you critically examine your own actions, wondering if you made the right decisions at the right time,” he said…

The emotional toll had weighed heavily on one police negotiator, who was seen leaving the police station in tears.

They were clearly pretty adept at handling the situation, although the same cannot be said for the kidnappers themselves.

After initially asking for R2 million, they first dropped the amount down to R10 000, and then said they would settle for R6 000 – R5 000 for themselves, and R1 000 to cover transport costs.

Sorry, but I’m not sure that adept kidnappers break their demands down into line items, and try and settle for less than 1/300th of their initial demands.

To reiterate once more, the family says that no ransom was paid, so I guess the kidnappers ended up out of pocket.

A picture of the room where Amy’Leigh was held has now emerged, as reported by News24:

The room where six-year-old Amy’Leigh de Jager was held after being kidnapped from her school on Monday was dirty, dark and “almost like a dungeon”.

A security source close to the investigation into Amy’Leigh’s kidnapping said she had been kept in “appalling conditions”.

“It was no place for a child; hell, it was not fit for any human.”

She was not held at the Shakespeare Inn Hotel, as reported elsewhere. “I can’t disclose the exact location, but it was a dump,” the source said.

Three people have now been arrested, with the suspects apprehended on Wednesday night, one of whom is actually a teacher at Amy’Leigh’s school, Laerskool Kollegepark.

This from the Sowetan:

A separate source, a family member, confirmed…that one of the people who had been arrested is “a very close family friend”, while, the source added, “The other one [suspect] is also connected to the family.”

The suspects were said to have had suitcases packed, and were ready to skip town, at the time of their arrest.

Credit where credit is due to all of the various law enforcement agencies that aided in Amy’Leigh’s return.

Now let’s see the same amount of manpower directed towards other cases of missing women and children.

[sources:timeslive&news24&sowetan]