A mother and her three sons who disappeared from New Mexico, triggering a multi-state Amber Alert, were found safe in the Lancaster area Sunday night, hours after the car the were driving in was found abandoned in La Verne, authorities said.
The three boys, ages 6, 8 and 9, were believed to have been taken in Albuquerque, New Mexico during the early morning hours and driven to California by their 28-year-old mother, Laria Walker-Anderson, according to an Amber Alert issued by the California Highway Patrol.
They were last seen in a silver, 2009 Kia Spectra, according to the CHP.
According to CHP logs, authorities learned of an electronic “ping” indicating the car had been on the 210 Freeway near Foothill Boulevard, just east of the 57 Freeway, in La Verne at 2:28 p.m.
A witness called police shortly after 5 p.m. to report seeing the car listed in the Amber Alert parked at Foothill Boulevard and Ramona Avenue with no one inside, La Verne police said in a written statement.
Officers responded and confirmed the car was the one being sought. The woman and children were no where to be found.
The family turned up safe in the Lancaster area shortly before 10 p.m., according to La Verne police Lt. Monica Schusse. Further details were not immediately available.
Walker-Anderson was not formally accused of any crime on Sunday afternoon, Bernalillo County sheriff’s officials said during a news conference broadcast on the department’s Facebook page. She has legal custody of the children, and no arrest warrant has been issued.
But the woman had made threats of possible self harm, or harm against her children, to the children’s father via a phone conversation, and there was believed to be a .45-caliber handgun in the car she had been driving, according to deputies. Due to the circumstances, officials said they wanted to make sure both the children and their mother were OK.
PHOTOS courtesy of the CHP
