dpCARSON CITY, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — A 5-year-old child reported kidnapped from Carson City was found safe in California after an AMBER Alert was activated, according to the Carson City Sheriff’s Office.
A suspect, Christopher Meithof, is in custody.
The Carson City Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the 2000 block of Loan Mountain Street around 3:30 p.m. on May 31 for a report of a child custody dispute. Deputies met with a woman who told them she had allowed Meithof to stay with her overnight so he could visit their 5-year-old child.
The woman told deputies that when she woke up Sunday morning, she discovered Meithof and the child were not at home. After several hours of trying to contact and locate Meithof and the child, she contacted the sheriff’s office, authorities said.
Investigators said patrol deputies reviewed local traffic and Flock camera information and located Meithof’s red Jeep Grand Cherokee driving southbound on Highway 395, passing old Clear Creek Road at 4:36 a.m.
Deputies attempted to contact Meithof, but his phone went directly to voicemail, the sheriff’s office said.
The U.S. Marshal’s Pacific Southwest Fugitive Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations’ Los Angeles Division and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Bureau conducted a traffic stop in Palmdale, California, around 2:15 p.m. on June 1 and recovered the missing child, authorities said.
The sheriff’s office said the child was safe and unharmed. Meithof was not with the child at the time of the recovery, but authorities said he was located and arrested at a residence near the traffic stop. He was arrested without incident and is being held at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Palmdale station pending extradition to Nevada.
The child is in the care of Palmdale Child Protective Services, which will help facilitate the child’s return to her mother.
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Anyone with information about the investigation is asked to contact Detective Bruce Pendragon at 775-283-7856.
