Sitter charged with kidnapping
Teresa McGee, 30, is accused of kidnapping Angel Montoya, 6, and his brother, Christian Montoya, 5.
Two Russellville children were found in Indiana late Monday night and the babysitter who is accused of fleeing the state with them is in jail.
Teresa Lynn McGee, 30, 75 Wallace St., Russellville, was arrested by officers with the Indianapolis, Ind., FBI office and other local Indiana authorities just after 10 p.m. Monday.
She was charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett said.
Angel Everado Montoya, 6, and his brother, Christian Santos Montoya, 5, were found unharmed and are now in the custody of the Marion County, Ind., child protective services department.
According to Hargett, Everado Montoya, the single father of the two boys, had met McGee through an acquaintance. Montoya worked long hours in an effort to support the children, so McGee had served as the children’s babysitter for the past six to eight months.
“We learned that for the past month, the boys had actually been staying with McGee because the boys’ father felt the living conditions at his home were unsafe for his children,” Hargett said.
“He was working on having the problems fixed but felt it would be best for the children to stay with McGee until they were.”
Hargett said Montoya would see the boys in the evenings when he got off from work, so he thought everything was fine until he received a letter from the children’s school on Saturday.
“Members from the school where the two boys attended became concerned when the boys didn’t show up for school all week,” Hargett said.
The boys were enrolled at Russellville’s West Elementary School.
“Following procedure, they sent a letter to the boys’ address concerning the absences, and the father received the letter on Saturday.”
Hargett said since Montoya had seen the boys during the evenings last week, he assumed everything was fine and that McGee was still carrying them to school.
“After he received the letter, Montoya called McGee and asked her where she was and she told him that she was with her mother, father and son and they were going to Florida to take the boys to Disney World,” Hargett said. “Montoya told her she did not have permission to do that and told her to bring the boys back.”
Hargett said Montoya kept trying to contact McGee to get her to bring the children home.
“McGee kept saying they were in Florida when they were really in Indiana,” Hargett said.
On Monday morning, school officials received a call from McGee stating that she wished to have the boys withdrawn from school.
Hargett said after being told she was not authorized to do that, McGee put another male on the phone who posed as the father.
The principal then became suspicious and decided to try calling the father at his place of employment.
“The principal called Montoya at work and discovered that he was there, so they immediately became concerned about the whereabouts of the children,” Hargett said.
“The principal and the school resource officer came to our office to inform us of the situation and the investigation began from there.”
Hargett said they were able to figure out where McGee was really located through her contact with the school Monday morning.
“After she hung up with the principal, McGee began faxing schoolwork to show she had been homeschooling the boys,” Hargett said. “We were able to take the number on the fax and trace it to an Office Depot in Indianapolis so we had an idea of where to look for her.”
Hargett said they were able to make contact with McGee later on Monday evening, and she voluntarily gave the address of where she was staying with the boys.
“Officers made it to the residence of the acquaintance where she was staying and took her into custody just after 10 p.m.,” Hargett said.
“One of the boys was asleep and the other was playing with toys. To our knowledge, they were examined and found to be unharmed.”
According to Hargett, the child protective services department in Marion County, Ind., will be coordinating with the Franklin County Department of Human Resources to make arrangements to bring the children back home.
McGee is scheduled for an extradition hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday at which point she will be given the option to waive her extradition.
“If she waives extradition, we will have 10 days to make arrangements to have her picked up and brought back to the area,” Hargett said. “If she does not waive extradition, we’ll have to go through the governor’s office to get her back.”
Until the issue of extradition is settled, McGee remains in the custody of the Indianapolis Metro Police Department.
The Russellville Police Department was assisted by the Florence and Huntsville FBI offices, the Indianapolis FBI office and other local agencies in Indianapolis.
“This was the kind of outcome we were hoping for – that the children would be found safely and McGee would be taken into custody,” Hargett said. “We appreciate the hard work of everyone involved.”
