Abducted child found

FORT WORTH -- A 2-year-old was briefly abducted Wednesday afternoon when the truck that his grandfather left running outside a Fort Worth business was stolen, police said.

The grandfather left the child in the truck while he went into a Speedy Cash outlet in the 2800 block of North Main Street, said Sgt. Pedro Criado, a police spokesman.

The truck with the child inside was found abandoned at a Food City store a few miles away near East Long and Decatur avenues.

The child was asleep when the truck was stolen and asleep when police found him uninjured, Criado said.

"God works in mysterious ways," Criado said late Wednesday.

Police had not found the thief. Criado said they do not expect to cite the grandfather for leaving the child unattended or for leaving the engine running.

"The grandfather was really terrified. It serves as a lesson learned, I'm certain," Criado said.

-- Marty Sabota

Inmate gets life term

FORT WORTH -- A prison inmate linked by a DNA database to the slaying of a woman found in a Fort Worth field in 2002 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Johnny Green Jr., 31, was originally charged with capital murder in the death of 44-year-old Carolyn Yvonne Ray Roberson but was found guilty of the lesser offense of murder by a Tarrant County jury Aug. 23. He appealed the verdict last week, court records show.

Roberson's body was found in a vacant field by members of the Sweet Home Baptist Church as they left a Sunday service on July 7, 2002. She was naked from the waist down, and a bloodied brick that had been used to beat her was found not far from the body, police have said.

Green, serving a 10-year sentence for injury to a child with bodily injury, was linked through DNA evidence to the case in February 2009.

-- Deanna Boyd

Death was accidental

FORT WORTH -- A man whose decomposing remains were found in June along an embankment off Interstate 20 was not the victim of foul play, the Tarrant County medical examiner's office has ruled.

The death of Kenneth Lee, 46, has been ruled an accident "with evidence of ingestion of methamphetamine," according to the medical examiner's website.

A landscape crew found Lee's remains June 18 under a tree and down an embankment off the 5800 block of westbound Interstate 20. -- Deanna Boyd

Woman flees mugger

HURST -- A woman out walking early Saturday got away from a would-be assailant by punching him in the groin and running off, police said Wednesday.

Police are looking for an Anglo man, about 25 to 30 with sharp fingernails and short straight hair. The woman described the man's car as dark-colored, possibly a Nissan Sentra, with shiny paint and tires.

The woman reported that the incident occurred about 12:50 a.m. Saturday in the 1400 block of Karla Drive. The woman said she was walking when the man drove up and asked her in Spanish how to get to Precinct Line Road. As she was giving directions, he got out of his car, grabbed her clothing and pulled her.

When she hit him, he doubled over, she said. As she ran off, he drove away, according to a police report.

-- Domingo Ramirez Jr.