Police find SUV used in Fresno carjacking of nanny and 1-year-old; suspect still on loose

Fresno police have found the vehicle stolen during the kidnapping and robbery of a nanny and a 1-year-old child, but the suspect remains nowhere to be found.

The missing 2009 Mitsubishi Montero was found over the weekend in the 300 block of Bluff Avenue, west of Woodward Park, Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer said Monday.

Several detectives worked on the case over the weekend interviewing potential witnesses and looking for surveillance video in hopes of finding a good image of a suspect, Dyer said.

Police have yet to identify a suspect, but the investigation is still going on.

"I feel very confident we'll be able to identify someone responsible," Dyer said.

Friday morning, the nanny had taken the child in a stroller and walked around the Woodward Park area. When she returned home in the area of Champlain and Ft. Washington Drive, she was confronted by a man who asked for water and money, then wielded a knife and forced his way into the home with the victim and the child.

He forced her to get into the Montero and drive to the cash machine.

He told her wanted her and the child to go with him to Southern California, but she convinced him to let her and the child go before he drove off, police said.

The SUV was found about two miles west of Champlain Drive and Shepherd Avenue where the suspect drove the victim, a 24-year-old woman, to get money from an ATM machine.

The car was processed for fingerprints and DNA evidence. But personal items of the victim that were left in the car were missing, Dyer said.

People in the neighborhood where the Montero was found told detectives the vehicle showed up about noon Friday, about an hour after the kidnapping occurred.

Lewis Griswold: 559-441-6104, @fb_LewGriswold