SpringfieldNewsSun.com

COLUMBUS — Columbus police say they have found the car that was stolen from the scene of the Harrison Twp. homicide of Jennifer Nelson and the abduction of her 4-year-old son.

The 2001 black Oldsmobile Alero was found about 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan 4 , in the 4000 block of West Broad Street in Columbus, said Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer.

Columbus police "got a tip from a citizen that noticed it," Plummer said.

The vehicle — which belongs to Nelson's mother-in-law, Vickie Nelson — was towed and is being processed for evidence and fingerprints by the Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Columbus, Plummer said.

The investigation is "coming together really well," Plummer said. "They're making some great headway over there in Columbus."

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department plans to release more information at a press conference 10 a.m. today, Jan. 5.

Earlier Sunday, Nelson's family turned to national television and the Internet to help police find the intruder who shot the 29-year-old mother in her home Friday night and kidnapped her son.

The boy was found wandering at an Interstate 70 rest stop in Madison County near Springfield, where he gave sheriff's deputies his home phone number and address and said, "Somebody killed my mom," according to the boy's grandmother and Plummer.

Vickie Nelson appeared on NBC's "Today" Show in an appeal to viewers to help find the suspect and the car.

Mike and Judith McConnell of Baltimore, who found the boy and put him into their car to get warm, also appeared on "Today."

"He told me a stranger had come into his house without knocking," Mike McConnell said. "I said, 'Where was your mommy?' and he said, 'He shot my mommy.' At that point I knew there was something seriously wrong, and of course we were calling 911.".

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.