Child abducted in Virginia Beach reunited with parents

VIRGINIA BEACH

When 17-month-old Naomi Hilel woke up from her nap Wednesday afternoon, she was surrounded by friends and family.

Some worked in the kitchen to prepare a meal. Others staged a vigil by the TV, watching for any news of the man who’d abducted the toddler from a gas station that morning.

Just hours before, they hadn’t known whether they’d ever see Naomi again.

On Wednesday morning, Zehavit Hilel Sibony loaded her four children into a minivan and headed for the Simon Family Jewish Community Center on Corporate Woods Drive.

She dropped off the three oldest ones at a day camp and then took Naomi with her to get gas at a 7-Eleven on South Witchduck Road.

As Sibony finished filling the tank of the 2009 gray Honda Odyssey she was driving, a man knocked her over and jumped into the driver’s seat, said her husband, Naor Hilel.

Sibony latched onto the side of the vehicle and begged for Naomi, Hilel said. The man hit the gas, throwing her to the pavement. Wednesday night, he was still on the run.

It was 9:48 a.m. when police got the call reporting Naomi’s abduction. Detectives headed to the gas station.

Hilel was on his way to help out at one of his uncle’s Oceanfront souvenir shops. When he got the news, he rerouted to South Witchduck Road, where he found his wife bruised, panicked and fading in and out of consciousness.

“I don’t know who’d want to do this kind of thing to people,” he said. “Just leave the baby, take the stupid car.”

Friends and family began pouring in from all over the city.

“All we can do is pray,” said family friend Yossi Gatlin.

Police began preparing an Amber Alert. They said they were looking for a white male in his 20s. Within an hour and a half, police announced they were looking for Matthew R. Nash, a 24-year-old from New York with a previous drug conviction from Virginia Beach. They declined to say how they identified a suspect so quickly.

The minivan had last been seen heading toward Norfolk, with the blond , blue-eyed toddler in the back, police said.

At 10:34 a.m., an employee dialed 911 from the Point Plaza Suites and Conference Hotel in Newport News, the first stop off Interstate 64 on J Clyde Morris Boulevard.

As two women were leaving the hotel, they’d spotted a little girl standing alone on the sidewalk. When they couldn’t find her parents, they took her by the hand and led her inside, manager Diane DeWitt said.

The staff checked to see whether she belonged to one of the hotel’s guests. She didn’t. They called 911.

The child was given a snack and a stuffed animal. Five minutes later, the police arrived and realized they’d found Naomi, DeWitt said.

“She had no idea what was going on,” the hotel manager said. “She was very subdued, she was very quiet. Once we got her to warm up a little bit, she wanted to play.”

At 11:01 a.m., the paperwork cleared and an Amber Alert went out for the missing toddler, naming Nash. Signs on I- 64 flashed with the van’s Florida plate number: HASHEM1. It means “God is one,” Hilel said.

The family still was waiting at the 7-Eleven for news . Her uncles prayed. Her mother fainted on the blacktop.

At 11:20 a.m., the call came that Naomi had been found 28 miles away. Cries of excitement and relief echoed through the 7-Eleven lot.

“Oh, my God, they found my baby!” cried her aunt, Rachel Sibony.

“Prayer works,” Gatlin said. “God is always on our side.”

Within a half-hour, Sibony and Hilel charged through the Plaza Point lobby and found Naomi waiting.

“When they entered the lobby of the hotel, they were almost running,” DeWitt said. “The mom was just crying over and over and the father was just grinning from ear to ear.”

By midafternoon, the family was together again at Naomi’s aunt’s home on North Inlynnview Road. Family and friends took turns holding the toddler, who was wearing the same baby-blue shirt and striped pants she had on when she was abducted.

Upstairs, her mother rested. When the car thief threw Sibony down, she cut her forehead on the pavement. She also suffered scratches to her arms and bruises all over, Hilel said.

“She was traumatized,” he said. But “she’s going to be OK.”

Sibony, Hilel and their four children are visiting Virginia Beach from Florida. They had been considering moving here, but now they’re not sure, Hilel said.

They eagerly watched the TV news, waiting to see whether Naomi’s abductor had been caught.

As of 11:30 p.m., no arrests had been made.

Warrants for Nash’s arrest on carjacking and abduction charges were out.

Nash is described as white with shoulder-length hair, 5 feet 11 inches tall, and weighing 200 pounds . He was wearing a white, blue and gray plaid shirt; dark shorts; dark shoes; and a dark ball cap, police said.

According to Virginia Beach court records, Nash pleaded guilty in Circuit Court in May 2006 to possession with intent to sell or manufacture a controlled substance. He had been arrested in 2005.

Nash was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with eight years suspended.
He’s also wanted in Camillus, N.Y., on a harassment charge.

Hilel said he couldn’t describe how it felt to have Naomi back.

“Thank God,” he said, “it had a happy ending.”

Pilot writer Patrick Wilson and Pilot photographer David B. Hollingsworth contributed to this report.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com

Cindy Clayton, (757) 446-2377, cindy.clayton@pilotonline.com