Gabrielle Belanger, age 22, last known address 15 Blackstone Drive, Nashua; currently listed as no fixed address, Nashua

NASHUA — A rather bizarre series of incidents during which 22-year-old Nashua resident Gabrielle Belanger allegedly approached a 10-year-old girl, convinced her to go for a walk with her, then hitched a ride across town to Stellos Stadium where she allegedly told the girl they needed to flee because her ex-husband was there and was trying to murder her, came to a safe ending Friday night, thanks to alert residents who saw the two and knew something wasn’t right.

Belanger, a slight woman at 5 feet tall and 106 pounds who currently has blue hair, was taken into custody later Friday night after patrol officers and detectives spread out across the city to investigate the series of incidents, which began about 8:30 p.m. when the 10-year-old girl’s mother called police to report the girl hadn’t come home after playing with friends in the neighborhood, and she was unable to locate her.

Belanger was initially charged with one count of interference of custody, but after investigating further police upgraded the charge to kidnapping, which is a Class B felony.

She was booked at police headquarters and held overnight pending Monday’s arraignment. Belanger waived formal arraignment, and a Superior Court judge ordered her held on preventive detention. Her next court date has yet to be scheduled.

Meanwhile, the alert residents who called police live on Gendron Street, which is a few minutes’ walk across West Hollis Street from Stellos Stadium. One resident told police two females approached her while reporting a possible domestic argument, and the officer who responded recognized them as Belanger and the 10-year-old girl, police said.

Belanger told the officer she knows the girl’s mother, and that Belanger was staying at her house. She also said, according to police, that she and girl “had run from Stellos Stadium to get away from her ex-husband.”

Meanwhile, the girl told police that when Belanger allegedly first approached her near the girl’s home in the city’s Crown Hill neighborhood, she believed that Belanger knew her mother.

They then walked to a nearby house, where they “received a ride from an unknown person to Stellos Stadium to watch a football game,” police said in reports.

Shortly after they arrived, police said “an unrelated fight broke out” at the stadium, but when officers arrived, Belanger allegedly told the girl that they “needed to run from police” because, Belanger said, she was “trying to hide from her ex-husband and that he was the devil and was trying to murder her,” according to police.

The girl wanted to speak with police at the stadium, but Belanger allegedly “convinced her they needed to run into the woods instead.”

They did so, but when Belanger allegedly told the girl they needed to hide behind a vehicle, the girl instead “tried to make herself seen by people in the area” in hopes someone would call police.

But Belanger later “claimed that they did not hide from people or the police,” and instead she had taken the girl “for a running/walking ‘spiritual journey’ through the woods,” according to police.

The girl, police said, asked Belanger “numerous times” to use her phone to call her mother, but she “kept making excuses that her phone was broken,” police said.

Early the next morning, police said, an officer went to the girl’s mother’s house and showed her a booking photo of Belanger, asking the mother if she knew who the woman was.

The mother noticed that Belanger was wearing the girl’s sports bra in the photo, which prompted police to ask the girl why she was wearing it. The girl said she gave the bra, and a pair of socks, to Belanger, so Belanger “could look like a cheerleader.”

During a post-arrest interview, Belanger allegedly told detectives that the girl “was like a kid sister to her, and that she had known her for awhile,” but she was unable to recall how the two met, police said.

Belanger also allegedly told detectives that the girl did in fact ask to go home multiple times, and Belanger kept looking for someone to call police “because she did not have a phone,” police said.

When detectives asked Belanger why the girl was giving police a different account of what had transpired, Belanger allegedly responded, “10-year-olds lie … she must be lying.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.