|
Estranged mother may have taken son from day-care center
Wednesday February 05, 2003
LAKEWOOD, Calif. (AP) Authorities are searching for a missing
5-year-old boy who may have been taken by his estranged mother from
a child-care center.
Darrell Tapia was taken Tuesday between 11:40 a.m. and 6 p.m.,
said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Chuck Stringham. Authorities
said the boy's foster mother went to pick him up Tuesday at the
day-care center in Lakewood where administrators told her that
Darrell had left with another woman.
Sheriff's investigators believe that woman was the child's
estranged mother, 44-year-old Ernestina Tapia, who does not have
custody of her son.
Tapia took her son last April and both were found a short time
later in Portland, Stringham said. Authorities suspect Tapia may be
headed to Portland again via bus or train.
A regional child abduction alert was declared Wednesday. Darrell
was last seen wearing black shorts, a green sweat shirt and a blue
denim jacket with a Mickey Mouse design on the back.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
|