July 15, 2010 10:54 AM

Amber Nicklas: Kidnapped Girl Missing Almost 7 Years Found

By
Edecio Martinez
Topics
Daily Blotter

Amber Nicklas: Kidnapped Girl Missing Almost 7 Years Found

Amber Nicklas (Personal Photo)

LOS ANGELES (CBS/KCAL/AP) Amber Nicklas was just 13-months-old when she was allegedly abducted by her three aunts from her foster parents nearly seven years ago.

Now, she is back in California after she was discovered safe in Phoenix, according to authorities.

Detectives from the Phoenix Police department's missing persons unit, as well as the FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, came to a home in Northern Phoenix with a search warrant looking for the girl.

Officials say the woman who answered the door tried to hide the girl, now 7 years old, under clothes in a bathroom shower.

According to CBS affiliate KCAL, the girl was reported to be in fine condition and well cared for.

The girl's name and date of birth had been changed, but officials said a positive match was made using her footprint and a DNA swab.

She was originally kidnapped, reportedly by three biological aunts - all juveniles at the time - during a non-custodial visitation.

The foster parents were distracted by two of the aunts and the third aunt got away with the child, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Bill Evans told the Associated Press.

Two of those aunts were later arrested; a third remains at-large.

The woman who was reportedly caring for the girl is not the third aunt, say police.

Story Contributed by CBS Affiliate KCAL


Add a Comment See all 18 Comments
by angelicxo July 17, 2010 10:45 AM EDT
Wow a lot of the comments here show a lot of ignorance as to how the system works. When a child is taken from a mother the first thing they do is contact family. If the person is not the biological parent, then they have to go through some classes to both show preparedness and commitment. Unfortunately those people have to go through a lot of hoops it feels like to receive custody and the process may be long. All the system is trying to do however is ensure that the kid just won't be put back in the system. Just because family wants to take them initially doesn't mean they actually will when the time comes. This has been the case one too many times for my boyfriends family who are foster parents.
What the aunts did was wrong on the basis that they didn't take the proper route to secure legal custody. By the article the aunts were also minors at the time which means they may not have been able to provide a proper place to care for someone so young. For those also claiming that the foster parents are getting money from this the amount of money a foster parent makes per kid doesn't even begin to cover a lot of the costs that the children incur. Most foster parents spend money from their own pockets for these kids and its a thankless job.
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by Cassarit July 17, 2010 10:12 AM EDT
This is a glaring example of state criminality and up to a certain extent, state terrorism. The child should be returned to her aunts and the government officials responsible for this human hunt, punished severely.
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by Cassarit July 17, 2010 10:03 AM EDT
I respect the wishes of the family over the wishes of some animal judge every time. The problem is that we have become too passive in this country, allowing judges, goverment lawyers and police enforcers to run our lives without even questioning them. We should hold them accountable and start stringing them up a thousand a day if need be.
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by beezdotcom July 17, 2010 12:45 AM EDT
I am stunned by all of these people making comments saying "drop the charges". It's not that I know for sure whether or not the charges should be dropped - I don't. I _DO_ know that none of these idiots know either. There isn't remotely enough hard information in this story to know whether these aunts (or the authorities in this case) are angels or demons.

Here's a hint: if you have reached a firm conclusion, you are either directly involved (and probably shouldn't be commenting here), or are simply projecting your own wishful thinking.
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by Cassarit July 17, 2010 10:07 AM EDT
No charges should have been made in the first place. How dare some animal with a judgeship take a child away from her family and place her with strangers. The judge who did this and any police enforcers who assisted are state criminals and should be unceremoniously deleted from the gene pool.
by justice1959 July 17, 2010 12:26 AM EDT
This is messed up where is the mothers involment in all this, how did they know where to go? How did they get the dna and footprint that is really some questions that need to be anserwed!!! The foster parents should give up there rights to amber the aunts and this couple where raising her he good. I think that the girl should stay with the only people she has ever know put her in school and let her grow like a normal child ,now who knows whats goin to happen to that poor child by the time the police and the press are through with her she will probally be so tramatized that she wont know what to do.The foster parents what do they have to say are they looking for free money (civil lawsuit)she is not even going to remember them.Come on check the child out physicaly and mentally and if there is nothing wrong with her, then ask the child who she rather be with the couple that was raising and the aunts or the Foster parents? Society sucks they all think that they know whats right for not only her, but for everyone else to!!! This is not the end of this lets see what happens to her in the future they will tramtize the poor girl and then leave her to the wolf's most likely
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by sovereign120 July 16, 2010 7:20 PM EDT
There's not enough information to accurately comment on this. Why the girl was in a foster home to begin with holds a lot of weight as to if the aunts were justified in taking the girl with them. The government and DCFS isn't the be all end all of things good, and when it comes to family I can't say I would necessarily not do the same things these girls did, but the article doesn't state the circumstances or much detail at all for that matter. So I don't know.
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by heavynne July 16, 2010 4:55 PM EDT
If the child was fine and living with family. They should leave her, why return her to foster care? Foster care is worse for children, she was with family and this is going to have a more dramatic impact on her.
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by ainventor July 16, 2010 3:40 PM EDT
I foster parents were obviously not capable of taking care of the child to begin with by allowing the child to get kidnapped. DAH!!! So now she's going back to the original foster parents. That's real smart.
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by gordongoucher July 16, 2010 12:44 PM EDT
every 10yr crime on children gets worse.society should be ashamed
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by MalloryDavis July 16, 2010 5:15 AM EDT
The whole world is nuts!
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See all 18 Comments
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