Two people, including a babysitter, were arrested Monday after two children were taken from Florida to Wisconsin without their mother’s knowledge, authorities said.
Adalyn Burkett, 18, and Marquan L. Edwards, 22, were taken into custody for taking the children – a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old – from Bay County, Florida to Milwaukee in their mother’s vehicle, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office received a call from the children’s mother Saturday. She said her two children were taken out of state by “a woman she believed to be a friend,” the sheriff’s office said.
“The mother reported that Burkett was supposed to babysit her two children overnight,” the sheriff’s office said.
The mother of the children allowed Burkett to use her vehicle for the night as long as she would return it the next morning. When the mother contacted Burkett, she learned that Burkett left the state in the vehicle with the two children, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office immediately began searching for the children after they were notified. The sheriff’s office said Burkett and Edwards traveled to Milwaukee overnight Friday and into the day Saturday.
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Children left at a public park after missing child alert was issued
On Saturday, an arrest warrant was obtained for Burkett for “interference with child custody and grand theft of an automobile,” the sheriff’s office said. “This information was sent to the Milwaukee Police Department.”
A missing child alert was also issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Sunday, the sheriff’s office said.
“When Burkett and Edwards learned of the missing child alert, the suspects took both children and dropped them off in a public park in a neighborhood of Milwaukee, leaving them alone in a major metropolitan city,” the sheriff’s office said.
The children were found Sunday evening by Milwaukee police.
The United States Marshal Service in Milwaukee was notified of the investigation and an arrest warrant was obtained on Edwards for “principal to interference with child custody” Sunday, the sheriff’s office said.
Burkett and Edwards were arrested Monday by the United States Marshal Service at a residence in Milwaukee. Milwaukee police are investigating the two for abandoning the children in the park.
