AURORA | Aurora Police say they jailed the man accused of briefly kidnapping an 8-year-old Aurora girl from her bedroom and said he was already in custody for an unrelated case.
Police say John Stanley Snorsky Jr., 26, of Aurora, faces charges of kidnapping and burglary and is currently being held in an Adams County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.
On Saturday, police asked the public to help provide more information about Snorsky. They said he was arrested in connection with charges of false reporting to a pawn shop, and that he worked at Sub Stop at East Sixth Avenue and Sable Boulevard, according to 9News. Police also said that Snorsky claimed to be an artist.
Police say it was Snorsky who carried the girl from her bedroom to an alley behind her home, where she screamed and managed to break free. He was arrested Tuesday morning in Aurora with the assistance of the state parole officials, who were investigating Snorsky for a potential parole violation. Police did not disclose what the previous case was nor the potential parole violation.
State prison department records show that Snorsky was convicted in two previous cases: one in Arapahoe County in 2004, and another in Denver in 2007.
In the 2004 case, Aurora police arrested Snorsky on several charges, including burglary, using an explosive and motor vehicle theft, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. Snorsky was just 17 at the time of the arrest but appears to have been charged as an adult.
Two months after his arrest Snorsky reached a plea agreement that saw him plead guilty to burglary in exchange for prosecutors dropping the other charges. An Arapahoe County judge sentenced him to four years in prison.
Snorsky was paroled after just a few years and in June 2007 was arrested again, this time on a parole violation.
He was again paroled but records show police believe he committed a felony theft in Aurora in early September. Details about the crime weren’t immediately available but he was accused of theft of something worth between $20,000 and $100,000. He was arrested on that charge, and a misdemeanor count of making a false report, on Oct. 29, just a day after the kidnaping.
It’s unclear why police waited four days to disclose the existence of a suspect to the public, since Snorsky has remained in jail since his Oct. 29 arrest. Police said they “arrived at probable cause to charge him with the kidnapping” on Friday, according to Aurora Police spokeswoman Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.
“We are extremely grateful to the community for the over 200 tips that came in during the week,” Cassidee said in a statement. “We are also grateful to the Division of Adult Parole and to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for their assistance in this investigation.”
The case now goes to the Adams County district attorney’s office.
Also unclear is whether anyone who provided tips to the police will be eligible for reward money offer. At $20,000, the reward police were offering for information about the kidnapping is the largest reward Aurora police have offered.
Police announced the reward Oct. 29, a day after police say a man grabbed the girl from her bedroom on Hanover Street and carried her to an alley before dropping her and fleeing in a silver or gray BMW.
A police department spokeswoman said the reward is the largest in the department’s history and is more than twice the reward police offered in 2008 for information about the slaying of a city code officer.
The suspect in the kidnapping was described as a white man with blond hair driving a silver or gray BMW sedan.
Police say it was Snorsky who grabbed the girl around midnight from her bedroom in a home in the 1600 block of Hanover Street.
The man carried the girl to an alley behind the home where she screamed and managed to break free.
The girl’s father came out of the house and the man sped away, police said. The girl’s bedroom sits on the north side of the house facing a two-story apartment complex. The rear of the house is surrounded by a 6-foot high privacy fence, but just a short chain link fence separates the girl’s window from the apartment building’s public walkway.
Police Chief Dan Oates said during a press conference Oct. 29 that the girl was in her bedroom with the light on when the man broke in by cutting a window screen and opening the unlocked window.
Press reports have quoted the girl’s family as saying she was awake and doing homework when the man approached. Police say that while the outcome wasn’t as bad as it could have been — the girl escaped with only abrasions — the crime itself is particularly horrifying: a child sitting in her bedroom, snatched by a stranger.
Dude…you are so ‘screwed’ LITERALLY. Bubba just LOVE baby rapers in Prison. *evil grin*
Why has it taken almost two months for detectives to determine this guy violated his parole and bring him in?