[chris]

An 8-year-old girl saved her family during a Louisville home invasion late on Sept. 13, 2009, by hiding in a kitchen pantry and quietly calling 911 as two armed men held her mother, sister and brother at gunpoint, police said.

Louisville Metro Police said the men chased the girl's 14-year-old sister back into the family's home in the Fern Creek neighborhood after she stepped outside to walk the dog. The teenager, her 12-year-old brother and their mother were forced upstairs into a bedroom at gunpoint.

The youngest child slipped into the pantry downstairs and called dispatchers to report that two men with guns were in the house. "She did save her family's life, in my opinion. I think she did an outstanding job," LMPD Detective Donnie Schraut said. He said she also opened the front door to let patrol officers in once they arrived.

Officers found the two men still upstairs with the family, in the middle of binding the victims' wrists with duct tape. Police said the men dropped their guns and surrendered without a struggle. No one was hurt and nothing was taken from the home.

Detectives identified the suspects as Kendell Towns and Frederick Dorsey, both 19 and previously convicted felons. Investigators said the pair would not say why they targeted the house, and the victims told reporters they did not know either man.

A Jefferson County grand jury indicted both that November on charges of first-degree burglary, four counts of first-degree robbery, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and receiving a stolen firearm. Both men pleaded guilty, and Jefferson Circuit Court records show they were convicted in December 2010.

Dorsey was sentenced to 35 years in prison, according to a Kentucky Court of Appeals opinion in his case. State corrections records show Towns received prison terms of up to 20 years on the robbery count, with lesser terms on the burglary and weapons charges. Dorsey later tried to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing he mistakenly believed he would be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his sentence rather than the 85 percent required under Kentucky's violent offender law. A trial judge rejected the request, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in December 2016. State Department of Corrections records show both men remain in custody.