Two New York children were found safe on Wednesday, thousands of miles away from the home they were reportedly taken from.
ABC 13 reports that Shekeria Cash, 3, and Dimitri Cash Jr., 5, who were taken from a foster home in Greece, New York, were found hidden under blankets in the floorboard of a car in Montgomery, Alabama.
“They’re being secreted under a blanket on the floorboard of a vehicle. So what does that say about the people who are responsible for this? And so I can imagine that they were upset,” Greece Police Chief Drew Forsythe.
During their search for the children, authorities learned information about a rented vehicle, which led them to Alabama, where they spotted a woman driving the car. During a routine traffic stop, they pulled the woman over and arrested her. The children were in the car.
The woman’s name has not yet been revealed and Forsythe says there are more people they need to speak with.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, two tall mask-wearing men reportedly kidnapped the children earlier this week and fled. Both men were dressed identical, police said, wearing flannel shirts, khaki pants, black ski masks and black ski hats. Both stood around 6-feet tall. One suspect appeared to weigh around 175 pounds, while the other appeared to weigh around 200 pounds.
The suspects smashed into a window at the home and specifically searched for Dimitri Jr. and Shekeria. Police said the suspects violently grabbed the children and put duct tape around a foster mother and two other children, NBC 10 reports.
According to a 911 call, a caller named one of the suspects as Dimitri Cash Sr.
“We have spoken to him [Dimitri Cash Sr.],” he said. “We did not speak to him in Rochester.”
“There’s warrants that need to be executed in Alabama. There’s so much more that needs to be done. But as far as the children go, they’ll be brought home as quickly as we can.”
US Marshal Charles Salina added that the children appeared to be fine.
“The marshals that were on the scene,” Salina said. “They reassured us. They said the children are now eating chicken nuggets and watching Tom and Jerry cartoons.”
Police are still searching for Cash Sr., although they have not yet named him as a suspect.
Cash Sr. was arrested in January 2020 after he forcibly took his son, who he did not have custody of, from Autumn Lane Elementary on Maiden Lane. According to CNY, a principal tried to intervene but Cash Sr. pushed the principal to the ground and struck him with his car as he was leaving with the child. He had another child with him at the time, a 2-year-old.
The suspect was found a few days later in Rochester.
Now, during the latest abduction, Cash Sr. remains at large. He reportedly posted an online petition last year, claiming that the children were taken from him under false allegations. The petition claimed the children were suffering at the hands of foster caregivers, who left the little girl with “severe vaginal rashes” from unchanged diapers and the boys with cuts and bruises.
The petition added that the children’s biological mother made false allegations against Dimitri Cash Sr. but later recanted and apologized. Police have not commented on whether the claims were accurate or not.
“We want to talk to Dimitri, see what he knows about it,” Chief Forsythe said on Tuesday. “Obviously they’re his children. I don’t know the full circumstances why they were particularly targeted — we don’t know what he knows, and it’s very important that we speak to him.”
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[Feature Photo: Police Handout]
