A babysitter who was watching two young children in Atlanta while their mother went to dinner is accused of kidnapping the kids, who were found two days later in a trailer, authorities said.
The mother left her children, girls ages 11 months and 4 years, with Lakesha Brown on Saturday, Aug. 15, at about 6 p.m. When she returned at about 10 p.m., she told police the children and Brown were gone, the Atlanta Police Department said.
The mother contacted police the next day, Aug. 16, after an initial communication from the suspect that she was going to return the children that turned out “not to be factual,” Lt. Christapher Butler said at a news conference.
An Amber Alert was issued for a 2009 white Ford F-350 truck Brown was believed to be traveling in, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Police coordinated with state and federal agencies and used cell phone data to track Brown’s location. They received information from somebody at the property where they tracked her location about the suspect staying in a trailer there. While at the property, officers heard the sound of crying from within a trailer, entered under “exigent” circumstances and located the children in healthy condition on Monday, Aug. 17, Butler said.
The suspect was also found on the scene, he said.
Brown was arrested and charged with kidnapping and cruelty to children, along with being a fugitive from justice, jail records show. It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
Butler said Brown had gained the mother’s trust over the course of about a year before she left her children with Brown.
“The mother thought she was leaving her children in the care of somebody she could trust,” Butler said.
A motive was not known, Butler said.
Babysitter has a history of similar accusations
Butler said Brown was involved in a similar case about five years ago in Alabama, with the “same circumstances.”
According to an Aug. 26, 2021, press release from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama, Brown was accused there of kidnapping a 4-day-old baby while his mother slept. Brown was a family friend, the sheriff’s office said.
Family members showed law enforcement Brown’s social media with photos of a baby that appeared to be the missing boy, and posts where she claimed to have recently given birth, the sheriff’s office said at the time. Tips from the public to investigators led them to Brown’s whereabouts and she was apprehended, but she didn’t have the baby with her at the time, the sheriff’s office said. Additional tips led them to a home where “extremely cooperative” adults led them to the baby.
She was charged with first-degree kidnapping in that case, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in 2021. Her bond was set at $100,000.
“Information that has been received during this investigation suggests that Brown may have attempted this type of behavior in the past,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in 2021.
Brown had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in the Alabama case, Butler said.