Babysitter Suspected of Abducting Two Young Sisters—Then Police Reveal the Girls Were Found Safe
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Police Department said they found two young girls safe after they were missing and the subject of an Amber Alert on Monday.
Atlanta Police Department officers recovered the children at an apartment complex in the Sylvan Hills neighborhood. The girls, 4-year-old Zola Cooper and her sister, 11-month-old Norah Cooper, were last seen with their babysitter in the James Avenue Northwest and James P. Brawley Drive Northwest area.
The babysitter, Lakesha Brown, was suspected of abducting the two girls. 11Alive has removed the photos of the girls from this story.
APD said they were investigating at an apartment complex in the Sylvan Hills neighborhood when they were tipped to a woman who was staying at the complex in a trailer. When detectives went to the trailer, they heard a baby crying inside and were able to find the two girls and the suspect.
APD said they utilized cell phone data that helped point them to the apartment complex.
The suspect allegedly had a similar situation from about five years ago in Alabama, and authorities in Alabama were also able to be “forthcoming with information that helped bring this to a close,” APD Lt. Butler described. In that instance, Brown was accused in 2021 of kidnapping a baby in Jefferson County, Alabama.
She was further accused in that case of posting pictures and videos on social media with the baby boy she’d kidnapped and claiming she had recently given birth.
Lt. Butler noted in the incident in Atlanta, the suspect “gained the mother’s trust over some time.”
He also noted there was a delay before a 911 call was made Sunday night to report the girls missing because the suspect had “gave some information about returning the children that was not factual.”
The girls have been reunited with their mother, according to police.
“Right now the children are in good health,” Lt. Butler said.
