A frantic police search located a pair of young girls Monday morning after they were abducted from western Georgia a day earlier, leading authorities to warn they were in “extreme danger.”
The alarm was raised after Kylie Horne, 11, and Kylann Harper, 4, went missing from a Burger King in Columbus, Ga., at 11:52 a.m. Sunday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said the girls were last seen with Mikaela Harrell, a 49-year-old woman with prior drug convictions. Her relationship to the girls remains unknown.
Also identified as a person of interest was Kaila Spires, who was identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as the children’s mother, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
A statement issued Monday by the Columbus Police Department read: “As of Monday, October 16, 2023 at approximately 11:30 a.m., both children have been located in the area of South Georgia and are safe.
“The investigation is ongoing, and charges could be forthcoming for those involved in the abduction.”
A later release from the same police department confirmed Spires was the childrens’ mother and had been taken into custody.
They also said she would be extradited to Columbus in the near future and afterward a court date would be decided.
Public records show Harrell is a resident of Ocilla, Ga., with at least two convictions for possession of methamphetamine on her record, including a felony possession charge where she was caught with between 28 and 199 grams of the narcotic.
Harrell was on parole for nine years between August 2007 and August 2016. She is not believed to have been charged in relation to the kidnapping.
Spires has at least one previous criminal conviction, a burglary charge that included breaking and entering at a residential home, according to department of corrections records.