Amber Alert canceled, girl found safe

AP Photo/Maine Department of Public Safety
Maine police issued the state's first Amber Alert Monday for missing 2-year-old Hailey Traynham who was taken by her father 38-year-old Gary Traynham , after he allegedly assaulted the girl's mother at her Sanford apartment.

- AP Photo/Maine Department of Public Safety

Hailey Traynham was found in the woods with her father, 38-year-old Gary Traynham, who has been arrested and is due to appear in court later this week. State police say he's being held in New Hampshire on a fugitive charge from Maine.

A hunter spotted Traynham and persuaded him to surrender and took the pair to the home of retired Wakefield Police Chief Timothy Merrill.

Hailey disappeared Monday after Traynham allegedly assaulted the girl's mother at her Sanford apartment. He faces a gross sexual assault charge in that incident.

The hunter, Mike Grant Jr., 38, said he walked up to the truck in which Traynham had been hiding with Hailey since daylight broke on Tuesday. Grant said he never had to raise his firearm.

"He started crying right away," Grant said.

Grant said police helicopters had flown over the woods a couple of times, unaware of that Traynham was there.

Traynham said he was nearly out of money and gas and had nowhere to go, Grant said.

The father and daughter seemed fairly comfortable, Grant said. Hailey was asked for her mother cried a bit, he said.

"I told him to be a man about it," Grant said of his conversation with Traynham. "I can't let you leave."