Man convicted in kidnapping of Pittsburgh-area teen released from jail

PITTSBURGH — A man who kidnapped and raped a 13-year-old girl in 2002 is out of prison and living in a Pittsburgh halfway house just miles from the crime scene.

Only Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle talked with survivor Alicia Kozakiewicz, who had no idea her attacker had been released.

Scott Tyree was transferred to a halfway house on the Boulevard of the Allies downtown after serving 17 years in a federal prison in North Carolina.

Kozakiewicz said she knew Tyree was set for release in April, but had no idea he was in Pittsburgh.

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"This is just such an injustice, and at the very least, my family should have been informed," Kozakiewicz said.

Kozakiewicz now lives in New York with her husband, but her family is still in Crafton where Kozakiewicz was kidnapped 17 years ago. Tyree held Kozakiewicz captive in the basement of his Virginia home where he raped and tortured her. Acting on a tip, police raided Tyree's home days later and found Kozakiewicz alive.

Tyree's new home is also right next door to Kozakiewicz's alma mater, Point Park University.

"I'm scared to return home, that my home has been hijacked, that I'm in fear for my family and for everybody I know, and frankly, for Pittsburgh, a place that I love and adore," Kozakiewicz said.

In the years since her kidnapping, Kozakiewicz has became an outspoken advocate for victims.

"While that is horrifying and my life will flip upside down, I'm working to be at a place where that's not going to to be as impactful as it could be," Kozakiewicz said.

The Bureau of Prisons would not confirm Tyree's specific location, but said the move is to facilitate Tyree's reintegration into his home community. Tyree is originally from California and lived in Virginia until his arrest in 2002. Target 11 could find no connection between Tyree and Pittsburgh.

The bureau also said it has a program to notify victims, but Kozakiewicz is demanding to know why she was never told.

"Somebody needs to go through this, figure out what happened and make sure that this does not ever happen again," she said. "And, to research, and to see if there are other families that this has happened to, and to reach out to them and to say, 'We are sorry.'"

Cox Media Group