Fortunately this little girl was found alive but it was through the efforts of an alert neighbour of the man holding her although the publicity undoubtedly helped.

But why did the police issue a rediculous press release about 1600 "sex offendors" they were trying to locate within a certain area that sent the tabloids into the usual frenzy ?

This was not only dangerous it could have derailed an investigation by tying up valuable police time. The general public may believe the complete tosh in the gutter rags but the police well know that the re-offending rate world wide is around 5% or under for this type of crime which is way under any other type of re-offending rate.

In fact this "sex offendor registry" serves no useful purpose. Dangerous repeat offendors should be monitored but anyone who has committed a crime should be treated like everyone else in the system.

But was she kidnapped or did she go to him voluntarily, maybe to escape from someone else?

We have yet to find out.