Found Amber Alert Issued for 2 Calif. Sisters After Their Mother Is Found Slain in Home

[Sugar Cookie]

Police in California have issued an Amber Alert for two missing sisters whose mother was found dead at their home.

The Kings County Sheriff's Office shared in a Facebook post that authorities are searching for Arya and Alana Maldonado, who are 3-years-old and 2-years-old, respectively, after they were found missing from their home in Hanford, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

Police said deputies were dispatched to the home on Jan. 28 at around 4 p.m. for a welfare check on a woman, later identified as the mother of the children. However, when deputies arrived on the scene, they found her “deceased from a gunshot wound.”

After a preliminary investigation, detectives identified 23-year-old Jonathan Alexis Maldonado-Cruz — who was identified as the children’s father — as a suspect in the incident.

Amber Alert Issued for 2 Calif. Sisters After Their Mother Is Found Slain in Home

“Detectives believe [the suspect] left the residence ... with two female children he shared with the victim, ages 2 and 3,” police said in a statement.

people.com

 

[Aedia]

Please let those babies be found safe!
And I hope they didn't witness their mothers murder.

 

[cubby]

For whatever reason I was expecting grown sisters and then I saw they are babies and I felt like I had been gut punched. Poor babies, I hope you are found real soon and "daddy" acts like a man and doesn't hurt you.

 

[Totemic]

They are already across the border.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The Sheriff of Kings County revealed more details surrounding the return of two girls who were abducted by their father and taken to Mexico after he allegedly killed their mother earlier this week.

The Kings County Sheriff’s Office revealed the victim, 22-year-old Madeline Rose Cuevas‘ father called Sheriff’s deputies after not hearing from Cuevas on Tuesday. Deputies went to her home on the 11500 block of Fourth Place in Hanford and discovered she was deceased from a gunshot wound.

According to the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, further investigation revealed the homicide most likely took place Monday night or early Tuesday morning, around 1 a.m.

The suspect, 23-year-old Jonathan Alexis Maldonado-Cruz, who was also Cuevas’ ex-boyfriend, fled with their children: two-year-old Alana and three-year-old Arya. The suspect also took Madeline Cuevas’ cell phone with him.

Detectives say Cruz had about a 15-hour start. Some of the initial information indicated he had fled to Mexico. From then, the Kings County Sheriff’s Office worked with the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Mexican authorities, and others, with an emphasis on bringing the girls back to the United States.

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/hanford-girls-found-safe/

 

[Aedia]

I'm so glad they weren't harmed! Of course, they're probably a bit traumatized or at very least very confused, but this could have ended so much worse.