A 2-year-old girl was found safe two days after she was allegedly kidnapped from her Arizona home and forced to sleep on the streets by a meth-smoking “random woman” who the child’s parents let stay at their home, according to authorities and reports.
Kehlani Rogers was reported missing after she was last seen on Friday evening at her home in Avondale. She was located safe on Sunday morning, according to the Avondale Police Department.
Marina Noriega, 23, was taken into custody for allegedly abducting the tot from the family’s home after cops located her with the child at a gas station in Phoenix, police said.
Kehlani’s parents told police they had welcomed the “random woman” into their home who needed a place to stay, according to court records obtained by 12 News.
Early Saturday morning, the 2-year-old’s parents woke up to discover Noriega had vanished along with their baby, the outlet reported.
As an intense search was launched for the toddler and her captor, investigators received a tip from surveillance footage at a business in the City of Maricopa that confirmed Noriega and Kehlani were together, police said in a Saturday update.
Cops had also received a tip from a woman who claimed to have given a ride to a woman and a child matching the Amber Alert description for Kehlani.
She told police that Noriega allegedly said she planned to take a train to California with the little girl, News12 reported.
After Noriega was taken into custody, court records revealed she claimed to be Kehlani’s mother, then later admitted she was not her parent and acknowledged she “made a mistake.”
“Marina denied having any plan for the child after she took her and denied intent to sell or harm the child,” investigators wrote in a court filing, according to the outlet.
Noriega claimed that she and Kehlani “slept on the street” together, records showed.
Noriega was in possession of a glass pipe when she was taken into custody, Stephen Garcia of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office told the courtroom during one of her initial court hearings.
“She admitted to smoking methamphetamine the day before, and that was during the time she had control of the child,” Garcia said.
Noriega has been charged with custodial interference and was ordered held on a $250,000 cash-only bond.