Police: Calif. girl found safe in Phoenix, nearly 7 years after she was abducted as infant
By APThursday, July 15, 2010
Police: Abducted Calif. girl found in Phoenix
NORWALK, Calif. — A girl abducted by three aunts from her foster parents nearly seven years ago, when she was an infant, is back in California after she was found safe in Phoenix, authorities said.
The girl returned to Norwalk Wednesday night and was placed in the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Bill Evans said.
Detectives from the Phoenix Police Department’s missing persons unit, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI located the 7-year-old girl at a Phoenix house earlier Wednesday.
A woman was trying to hide the child in a bathroom shower under a pile of clothes and towels when investigators searched the home under a court order, authorities said.
The girl appeared to be in good physical condition, Evans said. Her name was not released.
Police said three biological aunts — all juveniles at the time — abducted the girl when she was less than a year old, during a “noncustodial visitation” at a Norwalk restaurant. The child was in the custody of foster parents at the time.
The foster parents were distracted by two of the aunts and the third aunt got away with the child, Evans said.
Two of the aunts were later arrested, and the third hasn’t been located, authorities said.
The girl apparently was not related to the Phoenix family with whom she was living, Evans said. The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made.
The girl had been kept out of schools and her name and birth date had been changed, authorities said. Footprints, photographs and DNA swabs were taken of the girl to confirm her identity.
