Atlanta officers rescue kidnapped sisters from sweltering trailer

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Dramatic body camera video shows police in Georgia cutting into a windowless trailer and rescuing two young sisters who had been reported missing days earlier.

Officers with the Atlanta Police Department found the 4-year-old girl and her 11-month-old sister Monday after hearing a child crying inside the trailer, police said. Both children were in good health and have been reunited with their mother.

Police arrested 42-year-old Lakesha Brown, an acquaintance of the children’s mother who had been babysitting them. Brown was charged with kidnapping and ordered held without bond, authorities said.

The children's disappearance prompted an Amber Alert.
The girls’ mother, Elecia Redding, told police Brown had agreed to watch the children while Redding went to dinner Saturday. When Redding returned, she was unable to reach Brown and reported her daughters missing.

Redding said she met Brown about a year ago through an online group for mothers. Brown had posted that she offered free services to expectant mothers, and the two later became friends.

“She became a family friend from when I first met her on a mom group,” Redding said. “After that, we just started hanging and stuff.”

“The mother thought she was leaving her children in the care of someone she could trust,” Atlanta police Lt. Christapher Butler said.
Police said a tip from someone at an apartment complex helped investigators locate Brown and the girls.

The investigation led officers to the trailer Monday. After hearing a child crying inside, police cut their way in, removed both children and took Brown into custody.

Butler said Brown had indicated she would return the children, but that information “turned out to be not factual.”

Atlanta police said Brown was charged in Alabama in 2021 with kidnapping a 4-day-old baby.

Authorities said she also had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court in that case.