Detectives moved by abducted girl's recovery

SPRING LAKE, New Jersey (CNN) -- Veteran detectives shed tears Friday at the emotional reunion of an abducted 6-year-old girl with her frightened parents after the child was found alive and well at a New Jersey mall.

Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Honecker said police had found a ransom note demanding money for the return of Anna Cardelfe shortly after her abduction Thursday, but told reporters "none of the demands were met by law enforcement personnel or the family."

Witnesses at Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, New Jersey, alerted police that the little girl was at the mall, where police recovered her, Honecker said.

"She is in good spirits, she is unharmed and the investigation for those who abducted her (Thursday) is ongoing," Honecker said.

Police returned her to her parents in Spring Lake in a scene Honecker described as "very emotional."

"The parents exhibited emotions of relief," he said. "They were hugging their child, their child was hugging them. It was situation where veteran detectives ... were brought to tears."

The girl was playing with several other children in front of her Spring Lake home Thursday when a white male in his 30s pulled up in a car and lured her into the vehicle, police said. At the time, both parents were at work in Manhattan and the children's baby sitter was inside the house. The girl's father, Michael Cardelfe, is a trader in the city's financial district. The family moved away from the World Trade Center area in New York City to their summer home in New Jersey after the September 11 terrorist attack.

"Please know we'll do whatever is needed for her safe return," the girl's father, said Thursday. "Please bring our daughter home safely."

FBI Special Agent Kevin Donovan said an unidentified man telephoned police after the abduction and gave them directions to a ransom note. The man telephoned again later to ask if the note had been found, but there was no further contact, Donovan said.

Law enforcement authorities released sketches of a suspect and the car the man was driving in the hope that the public might be able to contribute information to the investigation.

"We have a number of leads that we're pursuing and there are teams of detectives fanning out," Honecker said.

Some 300 officers and support personnel had been involved since Thursday afternoon, Spring Lake Police Chief Robert Dawson said.

"Luckily we are here today to tell you of a good resolution of this case," he said. "We're going to follow these leads until an arrest is made."