75-year-old man charged after 5-year-old's disappearance in Queens

NEW YORK - The man who allegedly took a missing 5-year-old in Queens on Tuesday has been arrested and charged by the NYPD.

75-year-old Franz Vila spoke to reporters on his way to booking after charges were filed against him Wednesday, calling his arrest following 5-year-old Genesis Inamagua’s disappearance Tuesday "a police stunt."

Vila has been charged by the Manhattan District Attorney with kidnapping with injury abuse or sexual motive, 1st-degree criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment, and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17.

The charges are all in connection with the hours-long search for the 5-year-old Tuesday involving helicopters K-9’s and dozens of police officers.

Police searched frantically for the girl after she was last seen at Foodtown Grocery Store on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights around 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Images released by the NYPD clearly show the elderly man and the little girl together holding hands leaving the store. 

Authorities say Vila committed a sexual act against the 5-year-old girl while she was missing — alleging it happened when he took her back to his apartment in Lower Manhattan before being located by police hours later around 4:30 p.m. at the Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Avenue subway station, where he was taken into custody.

Authorities determined the child’s mom and the elderly man were  ‘Acquaintances’ who‘d barely known each other for a month clarifying he’d met the child before & mom felt she trusted him. 

The girl’s mom, 30-year-old Kimberly Pijuan, was also questioned for hours by investigators. The Queens D.A. office had planned to charge her as well but Wednesday they shared they decided not to pursue the charges at this time.