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Law enforcement officers and family members are looking for answers after an attempted abduction of a 10-year-old Cumberland girl.

Renita Trent said she was at her home on Davenport Road in Cumberland Sunday, July 26, when her oldest daughter, 10-year-old Anariah White, asked to go outside to play on a swingset.

Trent gave White the OK to play outside. What she didn’t expect was to get a phone call shortly after from her daughter, hysterically describing an attempted kidnapping as she hid from her attacker in the woods.

According to Trent, White ventured outdoors and began playing on the swings outside of the family home before hearing what she first thought was an animal behind a nearby shed. When she looked back, she saw a man peeking out from behind the building.

Trent said her daughter moved to gather her things and run back to the house, and that was when the man grabbed her.

White reportedly fought off the attacker and ran down the intersecting Stoney Point Road. A neighbor, according to Trent, reported seeing the young girl quickly walking down the road after the initial attack, although the man was not with her.

Trent said the attacker then returned and pulled White into the woods.

Trent said her daughter again fought with the man before escaping, wandering further from home. She then called her mother on her cellphone, telling her she had been attacked and didn’t know where she was.

Trent said she grabbed her other daughter and searched for White, eventually finding her in a field in front of a neighboring house.

“She was shaken up,” Trent recounted of the incident. “She was crying. She was screaming.”

The family then traveled to Trent’s parents’ home and called the police. The incident took place between 1:45 and 2 p.m.

Trent just moved into the house on Davenport Road in April. She said Wednesday she would have never imagined something like this would happen near her home, but that since the attack took place, others have come forward with reports of a strange man seen in the area. She believes the man may have been scoping out the area for a while and waiting for the perfect time to perpetrate the crime.

Despite the fear and anger associated with the incident, she said she felt proud of her daughter for fighting so hard against the man. Trent added White is doing well after the incident.

She directed her closing statement to her daughter’s attacker.

“I hope you get what’s coming to you.”

According to a release from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement officers are investigating the incident.

“The man, according to White, was wearing a mask and dressed in all black, with blue or grey eyes and a greyish beard visible underneath the mask.”

Any person with information on the incident that was in the area of the intersection of Davenport and Stoney Point Road on Sunday, July 26, particularly between the hours of noon and 2:00 p.m., is encouraged to call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at (804) 492-4120.