Officers investigating a residence in New York's Hudson Valley discovered a missing little girl concealed beneath a staircase, authorities said Tuesday.
A Saugerties residence approximately 130 miles (210 kilometers) east of Cayuga Heights, where she was reported missing in July 2019, when she was 4 years old, was found in good health Monday night, according to Saugerties police.
NY Girl Missing For 2 Years Found Alive
Her noncustodial parents were accused of abducting her, according to police. After approximately an hour of searching, officers executing a search warrant discovered the girl hiding with her non-custodial mother in a chilly, wet, homemade cage beneath a basement stairway.
According to authorities, after removing several wooden stairs, they got their first view of the girl's feet. The girl was confirmed to be in good health by the paramedics who arrived at the scene. She was turned over to her legal guardian and reunited with her elder sister.
On allegations of custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child, the non-custodial parents and a third individual were arraigned. It was not immediately clear whether any of them had legal representation, according to AP News.
Missing Girl's Parents Lost Custody but Ran Off The Child
Kirk Shultis Jr., 32, Kirk Shultis Sr., 57, and Kimberly Cooper, 33, face charges of custodial interference and endangering the life of a child. Missing girl Paislee Shulti's biological parents are Kimberly Cooper and the younger Shultis. Neither of them has custody of Paislee. The homeowner, Shultis Sr., denied knowing where his granddaughter was and said he hadn't seen her since she was reported missing in 2019, according to police.
Paislee was last seen on July 13, 2019, according to the Albany-based WRGB. She was believed to be with Cooper and Shultis Jr. She may have been transferred to Saugerties, according to New York state officials in a missing child notice at the time.
After losing custody of their children, the girl's parents reportedly went away with Paisley on the day they were meant to hand them over to state authorities, he said. Because her elder sister was in school at the time, she had to be taken care of by a legal guardian.
Paislee appeared to be "being taken care of and in good condition," although she hadn't attended school since her disappearance in 2019. According to FOX 5 New York, Shultis Jr. told police that Cooper had left him and moved to Pennsylvania and that he hadn't seen her since 2019.
However, she and Paislee were reportedly hiding beneath the stairs at Shultis' father's Saugerties house on Monday night. After an hour into their search of his residence, investigators claimed they noticed a suspicious piece of the basement stairway. The compartment is loaded with blankets, according to a picture taken at the crime scene.
Paislee was checked by paramedics and found to be well before being sent to her legal guardian and reunited with her elder sister. On Wednesday morning, all three accused will appear in court, Fox News reported.
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