When a panicked Jones saw what was happening, Maggie indicated to her and some of the residents who had gathered outside that a “monster” had kidnapped her and held her captive for a few days in a unit across the hall from where she lives.
“She goes, ‘Help me, help me please,’” Jones, a 23-year-old neighbor, said to The Washington Post. “When the guy walks back up, she says, ‘The monster is back.’”
What unfolded shortly after Jones called 911 was a community rescue of a 5-year-old girl who police say was held hostage by her neighbor. But the alleged kidnapping case took an even darker turn when authorities found a person dead inside the unit where the girl had been living. Neighbors said the person who was killed was Colby Millsap, Maggie’s father.
Dangelo Cash Clemons, 30, was arrested and charged with kidnapping and child enticement, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. A homicide investigation into whether Clemons was involved in Millsap’s death is ongoing, Detroit Police Department Detective James Kraszewski told The Post.
Clemons, who received a bond of $250,000 with a GPS tether, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. It is unclear whether he has an attorney. Michigan law says a kidnapping conviction is punishable for up to a life sentence in prison.
“All allegations like these that confirm why we all do this challenging work,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a news release this month. “We must protect our children by all lawful means necessary.”
In an interview Wednesday, Jones said Maggie had been playing with her 3-year-old daughter so much since she moved to the neighborhood that Jones considered the 5-year-old to be part of her own family. Jones also got to know Colby Millsap, who has been raising Maggie on his own after the girl’s mother died years before. She said Maggie’s father was a standup guy who wanted the best for his daughter.
“He used to panic when she stayed out here too long,” Jones said. “He would thank me and try to reimburse me whenever I bought the kids ice cream. He was that kind of guy.”
Maggie’s godmother, Karla Reaves, told WDIV that she and her daughter would take the 5-year-old to the park every day after she aced some math questions.
“He made sure she did five math problems and read a book before we took her to the park,” she said.
Jones did not know why she started to feel anxious in late June. Millsap would always be working on his Jaguar in the driveway, but he was not out there for two days, Jones said — and neither was Maggie.
While returning home from work on June 30, Jones got a call from her sister at around 8:30 p.m. Her sister called to ask if a girl she heard crying and screaming in the neighborhood was Jones’s 3-year-old daughter. When Jones said no, her sister replied that if it was not her daughter, then who was the young girl who could be heard wailing down the street?
Aside from her own kids, Jones knew there was only one other child who lived nearby: Maggie. She called 911 and sprinted outside, and began screaming her name. Other neighbors had gathered to see what could be done to help the child.
“At this point, it’s getting dark, and she’s saying, ‘Help me, help me please,’” Jones said.
Police were dispatched to the area of Schaefer Highway and Capitol Street, located northwest of downtown Detroit, for a child endangerment call at 10:25 p.m. When officers pulled up to the area following Jones’s 911 call, Kraszewski said local residents flagged down authorities to tell them where Maggie was.
“A couple of the citizens even engaged with the individual to let [Clemons] know, ‘You have to get that girl out of there,’ and he basically slammed the door on them,” Kraszewski said.
Jones told The Post that she knew nothing about Clemons and had only spoken to him one time the month before. When she asked him why she had not seen him around the neighborhood, Jones said he replied, “I never come outside.”
As officers arrived upstairs, they noticed the door to Maggie’s residence was open. They walked inside and “observed a deceased person in the living room,” according to police. Authorities have not publicly identified Colby Millsap as the victim.
Shortly thereafter, Clemons “slammed the door” on officers during a brief conversation, Kraszewski said. Knowing that Maggie was in her neighbor’s duplex, police forced their way into Clemons’s home and detained him.
Police were able to get Maggie out of the duplex and transport her to a hospital for treatment. In body-cam footage obtained by The Post, Maggie is heard talking with an officer carrying her away from the scene.
“Do you know what I want to be when I grow up?” the 5-year-old asked. “I want to be a policeman.”
Kraszewski, who said no other case in his career has affected him more than this one, praised Jones and community members for alerting police of the alleged kidnapping.
“They took it upon themselves to help this young girl,” he said to The Post. “If not for the brave effort of everyone in the neighborhood, God only knows what would have happened to this young girl.”
Though the community is grateful for Maggie’s safety, Reaves, her godmother, has called for justice against Clemons.
“He needs to know that he hurt this little girl for the rest of her life,” Reaves said to WDIV.
Jones said she has not seen or heard from Maggie, who police say remains in foster care as of Wednesday, since her rescue. When police came by to follow up with her this week, Jones said her daughter thought the knock on the door was Maggie coming over to play.
“I would tell her that I’ve missed her and haven’t stopped thinking about her,” Jones said of Maggie. “I’d just tell Maggie that she’s welcome here.
“She can always count on me.”
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