Trespass call leads to Georgia teen who was missing for 7 years, Colorado officials say

A 14-year-old Georgia teen who’d been missing for more than seven years was found in Colorado, officials said.

On Feb. 23, a homeowner called Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies to report trespassers after viewing their security cameras, according to a March 5 Facebook post by the sheriff’s department.

Two people were seen entering the property, which was empty and listed for sale, officials said.

After deputies got to the scene, they found two kids in a car in the driveway and saw a woman and man leaving the home, saying they were associated with a realtor, officers said.

But deputies said the man and woman’s “story began to unravel” as officials “worked for four hours to verify their identities.”

It was learned that the woman, who was the mother of one of the children in the car, had an active warrant for kidnapping, officers said.

Detectives then discovered the 14-year-old in the car was a “victim of kidnapping,” officials said.

An investigation found out that in November 2017 the woman was accused of kidnapping her son from Atlanta, Georgia, officers said. She did not have custody of the boy, and a warrant had been put out for her arrest.

The 40-year-old woman and the man, 42, were arrested and booked into the Douglas County Jail on charges that include second-degree kidnapping, forgery, identity theft, providing false information to authorities, and trespassing, officers said. Bond was set at $1 million each.

The children were taken into protective custody, officials said.

“Our deputies responded to what initially seemed like a routine trespass call, but through sharp attention to detail and tenacity, they uncovered the truth. Their ability to recognize the discrepancies in the suspects’ story and to follow the leads, even when the situation seemed unclear, ultimately led to the safe recovery of a child who had been missing for seven long years. I couldn’t be prouder of the work done by our team,” Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said in the release.

Douglas County is about a 50-mile drive south of Denver.

This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Trespass call leads to Georgia teen who was missing for 7 years, Colorado officials say."