Kidnapped 3-Year-Old Girl Found Safe After Amber Alert Issued

Updated:

A 3-year-old girl from Arkansas has been found by police, according to the Van Buren Police Department.

Layla Munholland, the girl, was found during a traffic stop on I-64 East near Grayville, Illinois in a 2006 Toyota Corolla, the vehicle she was suspected of being in, police said. 

She was with suspects Chelsea Munholland, the girl’s mother, and Munholland’s boyfriend Herbert Thomas. Munholland is currently in police custody, while Thomas is being detained, officials added.

An Amber Alert was issued for the 3-year-old on Friday, July 15, when she was kidnapped from her home where she was staying with maternal great-grandmother Gloria Perry, who had legal custody of her.

Sometime between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., Perry was abducted through a window by Munholland and Thomas. Additionally, the two allegedly stole the car key’s to Perry’s 2006 Toyota Corolla. Though Munholland is the girl’s biological mother, she no longer had custody of the child. At the time of news of the kidnapping, the two were expected to already be in Oklahoma.

Munholland has had a history of run-ins with the law. She has been arrested multiple times for theft and felony possession of drug paraphernalia, according to KFSM. Police also found marijuana in Munholland’s car when she was pulled over for a traffic violation in May 2015. The alert also says that Munholland is believed to have mental issues while Thomas has ties to the Neo-Nazi Aryan Nation.