(HorizonPost.com) – In June 2020, Saugerties Town Police Department in New York asked for the public’s help finding Paislee Joann Shultis, who was four years old when she was last seen in July 2019. On February 14, police finally found the little girl, now six, alive and in the custody of her biological parents, Kirk Shultis, Jr. and Kimberly Cooper. The mother and little Paislee were hiding under makeshift basement stairs inside the girl’s paternal grandfather’s house. After a medical examination, authorities returned the 6-year-old to her legal guardian, where her older sister currently lives.
Paislee’s parents lost custody of their children in 2019 and, when the time came to relinquish their child, the pair allegedly took her and ran.
Police suspected that Paislee Shultis was kidnapped by her parents, who had just lost custody after her 2019 disappearance.
A fresh tip led to a search warrant and a detective seeing what looked like a blanket under the stairs. https://t.co/jTfnYC6beX
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) February 16, 2022
Local police reported receiving a tip about Paislee’s location, so they executed a search warrant at Kirk Shultis, Sr.’s house. Although he denied any knowledge of the girl’s whereabouts, further investigation revealed a tiny room just big enough for his granddaughter and her mother.
Authorities arrested the three involved in the minor’s disappearance, charging them with endangering the life of a child and custodial interference. Paislee was allegedly in good health but had not been to school in the two years she was missing. Given the situation, many wonder what she endured throughout her missing years and why her biological parents lost custody of their children in the first place.
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