Update:
The toddlers have been found safe, according to the Atlanta Journal. No details are available about where and how Jalen Mattison, 3, and Amari Mattison, 1, were located, nearly 12 hours after they had been taken from their mother in DeKalb County.
“They’re safe,” GBI spokesman John Bankhead told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
There’s no word on what happened to the suspect who supposedly kidnapped the kids.
Update II, 4:01 PM ET:
According to the AJC:
The man said to have taken toddlers from their mother early Wednesday morning quickly dropped them off with friends to “babysit,” police said.
Two women keeping the children for the man believed he had rightful custody and that they were doing him a favor, DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said.
“According to these women, they were friends only … they only knew his nickname,” Parish said. “The women only found out the kids were kidnapped late this morning from watching news reports.”
Around 1 p.m., the women took the children to the DeKalb County Magistrate Court and turned them over to police officers there.
Originally posted on Feb. 22, 2012 @ 12:28 p.m.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (feds) has joined the search for two missing toddlers who may have been victims of a stranger abduction.
According to the Atlanta Journal, a woman called police early Wednesday to report that a man drove off with her two toddlers.
A “Levi’s Call,” Georgia’s official AMBER Alert, was issued late Wednesday morning for 3-year-old Jalen Mattison and 1-year-old Amari Mattison. The unidentified woman said her car broke down on the side of I-20 eastbound near Wesley Chapel Road before 2 a.m., and a man stopped offering to help.
Somehow this man was able to get a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old into his vehicle and drive off while the mom was on the phone with the tow service.
The mom described the vehicle the man was driving as a 2000 to 2005 green Jeep Cherokee. The suspect is described as a black male, about 5-10 to 6 feet tall, with a thin build and wearing a light brown or tan baseball cap.
The AJC article doesn’t indicate if the toddlers were strapped into their car seats when her Volvo broke down by the side of the road. Nor does the article indicate how the children got out of her car and into the suspect’s car without her seeing or hearing the transfer take place.
According to police, the woman did not know the man.
We’ve all heard this story before, but with different scenarios: A self-obsessed woman disassociates from her children because they interfere with her pursuit of a married man. So she disposes of them and blames their disappearance on a total stranger. I hope this is not what happened in this case, and that this story ends well with the safe return of the children.
Anyone with information about the suspect or the children is asked to call the DeKalb County Police at 770-724-7850, or send an email to the GBI at comctr@gbi.ga.gov.
