Mother may have been on verge of murder-suicide when State Police found 3-year-old girl

Lee-Ann Abbott Rickheit. 

The woman who allegedly kidnapped her 3-year-old daughter in Worcester, triggering an Amber Alert, was apparently trying to kill herself and the child when State Police found them in an idling car, the exhaust blocked with clothing.

Lee-Ann Rickheit allegedly kidnapped the child from a Worcester home around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, made threats to kill the girl, and then drove around Central Massachusetts with the child until State Police troopers tracked her down to woods in Charlton about 2:45 a.m.

Troopers from the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section located the car in the woods near a store on Stafford Street in Charlton, in an area where Rickheit was known to park her car and sleep in the past, State Police spokesman David Procopio wrote.

When they arrived, 38-year-old Rickheit and the child were inside the car, the windows were up, the engine was running and the exhaust was blocked with clothing, Procopio wrote. “Troopers observed the mother and daughter Ella either sleeping or unconscious in the car,’’ Procopio wrote. “Trooper Keller Williams smashed a window to the vehicle and troopers removed the child and Rickheit from the car.’’

Rickheit and the child “were either sleeping or unconscious’’ and both were transported to area hospitals to be evaluated. Rickheit was taken to Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, while the girl, identified as Ella Abbott, was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

“The child is reported to be doing well,’’ Procopio wrote.

Rickheit was later transferred to the State Police barracks in Sturbridge and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Dudley District Court on charges of attempted murder, assault and battery on a child, and reckless endangerment of a child, Procopio wrote.

The intense search for the child was led by troopers who usually are assigned to locate violent criminals but shifted their attention to tracking down the child, whom they located by detailed interviews with people who knew Rickheit, Procopio wrote.

“The troopers had focused on the area after intelligence that was developed led them to check various addresses in Sturbridge and Charlton for Rickheit,’’ he wrote. “The troopers conducted numerous interviews of people who might have information about her whereabouts.’’