Police reported that a 3-year-old girl named Kehlani Rogers was allegedly abducted by a woman named Marina Noriega, 23, who took her from her home in Avondale, Arizona. The girl was found safe a few days later, but the circumstances were certainly alarming.
Kehlani spent a night on the streets with Noriega after the woman reportedly needed a place to stay and was allowed into the home. The girl’s parents discovered her missing the following morning, waking up to find not only Kehlani gone but also this stranger in their house.
According to court documents, the Avondale Police issued an Amber Alert immediately after learning about the abduction, which triggered a desperate search for the little girl.
Investigators eventually received a tip from a driver who saw a woman and child matching the descriptions given in the Amber Alert. This driver took them to Maricopa, recognizing Noriega as someone who planned to catch a train to California.
Surveillance footage captured Kehlani and Noriega at several locations in Maricopa before police found them at a KwikTrip convenience store in Phoenix. Fortunately, the police confirmed Kehlani is in good health and they don’t believe she was harmed during the incident.
Noriega was taken into custody and initially attempted to claim she was Kehlani’s mother but later admitted she had made a mistake. Investigators stated that she did not seem to have any plans for the child and didn’t appear to have intended to harm her.
Interestingly, Noriega mentioned to the police that she had slept outside with the child the night before and had no genuine reason to go to Maricopa. She is now facing charges related to obstruction of custody and is being held on a cash-only bond of $250,000.
This unsettling incident comes just weeks after the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, the elderly mother of a “Today” show host, from her home in Tucson, which is about 210 miles away from Avondale. Guthrie has been missing since early February, and authorities still haven’t located a suspect in that case.
