By DONNIE JOHNSTON
Two-year-old Diyon Amate Jasper and his year-old sister, Amaya Marie, are back in Madison County and the woman accused of driving off with them is in custody in Maryland.
"They appear to be fine, but their grandmother is having a doctor check them out just to be sure," Madison County Sheriff Erik Weaver said yesterday.
Stacy Smith, 40, is accused of leaving with the children Friday morning about 7:30 and spending the next three days driving back and forth between Virginia Beach and the Washington suburbs, according to Weaver. "The state police tracked her through her cell-phone service," he said.
An early news release described Smith as the children's "caretaker." Weaver said she was "the fiancee of the children's grandfather."
"She did not have permission to have the children," the sheriff said.
Weaver said his office lost contact with Smith about 9:30 Sunday morning and became extremely concerned when she did not arrive in Madison County at noon, as she had said she would. Sunday evening, state police issued an Amber Alert--a notification system used to enlist the public's help in finding missing children.
Smith was located at a private residence in Prince George's County, Md., late Sunday night after a neighbor became aware of the alert and contacted Maryland authorities, Weaver said.
Smith has been charged with kidnapping and abduction and is being held in a Calvert County, Md., jail awaiting extradition to Madison. Weaver said Smith also is wanted in Maryland on charges of writing bad checks and a probation violation.
Although the Amber Alert system ultimately helped locate the toddlers, Weaver said he is concerned about how long it took state authorities to get the information posted on interstate highway signs, TV screen crawls and radio.
The sheriff said he got the information to state police about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, but it was not widely publicized until after 6 p.m.
"We have questioned the state police about this," he said.
Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman Lou Hatter said the agency doesn't post warnings on interstate signs "until we get a request from the state police to do so." He said it was his understanding that the request came about 6 p.m. Sunday.
Les Tyler, spokesman for the Virginia State Police's Culpeper District, which includes Madison, said that he did not know anything about the circumstances involved. Hatter said that Amber Alert system messages are handled through the state police emergency operations center in Richmond.
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com