Utah parents describe how they saved daughter from kidnapper's hands
Aaron and Stephanie Holladay Edson aren't sure where their little girl would be today if it weren't for a mother's intuition.
Stephanie said that's what woke her Friday morning when a man tried to abduct her 5-year-old daughter, Lainey, in the middle of the night.
The Holladay Edsons were still shaken when they told their story on Good Morning America Monday.
"I woke up, not to a noise, nothing woke me up -- and I looked at my cell phone because it was next to my bed and it was 4:07 a.m.," Stephanie said.
Stephanie heard Lainey's voice and knew something was wrong. As her husband went outside, Stephanie checked her daughter's room. She said the image of her daughter's bedroom door open and her bed empty is burned into her brain forever.
Meanwhile, Aaron did find Lainey outside, but she was in the arms of a stranger. Lainey was holding a book, and--the 911 call revealed--the kidnapper may have changed her out of her pajamas.
Aaron said he was very conscious of his tone of voice because he didn't want his daughter to be frightened.
"No one's voice ever got raised," Aaron said of his conversation with the man who was holding his daughter.
The stranger explained that he believed taking Lainey would save him from some trouble he was in.
"I said, 'Look, I want to help you, but you can't take her'," Aaron remembered of their conversation.
Eventually, the man returned Lainey to her father. Around that time, her mother came outside. Stephanie said it was not until her daughter was safe in her arms that she called 911.
A 48-year-old man, Troy Morley, was later found hiding in the basement of a nearby home. Police have identified him as a suspect in the case.
Lainey is happy and doing well, her parents said. They're grateful that the scary situation ended the way it did.
"We have had a very close call," Aaron said, "If it has to happen, this is the way that it needs to end. It's just perfect. We're so grateful."
