On Thursday, May 16, a 16-year-old girl reported to the Cottonwood Police Department that a male suspect allegedly tried to kidnap her in the area of East Cherry and S. 17th streets around 3:45 p.m. while she was walking home from American Heritage Academy.
The suspect asked the victim if she wanted to get into his vehicle and grabbed for her but she screamed. The suspect fled the area of East Cherry and turned left, southbound onto South Main Street.
The alleged suspect is described as a mid-30s, muscular, dark-skinned male, possibly African-American, with short hair driving a 1990s to 2000 gray four-door car similar to a Cheverolet Lumina. There is a noticeable scratch on the driver side door, the back seat is full of trash and possibly an out-of-state plate on the car. The girl indicated that even though the back seat was full of trash the suspect was clean in appearance.
If anyone was in that area during that time frame or has information please contact the Cottonwood Police Department at (928) 649-1397.
Christopher Fox Graham is the managing editor of the Sedona Rock Rocks News, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra. Hired by Larson Newspapers as a copy editor in 2004, he became assistant manager editor in October 2009 and managing editor in August 2013. Graham has won awards for editorials, investigative news reporting, headline writing, page design and community service from the Arizona Newspapers Association. Graham has also been featured in Editor & Publisher magazine. He lectures on journalism and First Amendment law and is a nationally recognized performance aka slam poet. Retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills, former director of Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs referred to him as "Mr. Slam Poet." In January 2025, the International Astronomical Union formally named asteroid 29722 Chrisgraham (1999 AQ23) in his honor at the behest of Lowell Observatory, citing him as "an American journalist and longtime managing editor of Sedona Red Rock News. He is a nationally-recognized slam poet who has written and performed multiple poems about Pluto and other space themes."
