A four-year-old child was found alive in a hovel-like improvised chamber beneath the stairs after her parents took her after they lost custody of her in 2019. Paislee Shultis, who was four years old at the time, was kidnapped from her legal guardian’s house in Cayuga Heights, New York.
Kim Cooper and Kirk Cultis, her biological parents, had been taken from her care. It’s unknown why they lost custody, but they reclaimed her and have been hiding from authorities for the last three years.However, authorities in Saugerties, New York, got information on Monday that the girl was with the couple at their house.
She was discovered in a dark, damp chamber beneath the stairwell. The property is 162 miles away from the location where she was kidnapped in 2019.
Cooper, Shultis, and Shultis’ father were all detained, but on Tuesday morning, Shultis and his father were freed on bail. Cooper remains in the Ulster County Jail, but the father and grandpa have been freed on charges of endangering the life of the child and interfering with custody.
Cooper is being held on an extra charge from family court, the nature of which is unknown.
No one has been accused of kidnapping.
When the youngster was stolen in 2019, it’s unknown who she was staying with. Saugerties Detective Erik Thiele noticed something about the stairs heading from the rear of the dwelling into the basement of the house that drew his interest. When he pointed a flashlight down the stairwell, detectives noticed a pair of little feet. The youngster and her abductor were located after several more stairs were removed, a police official stated.
It’s unknown who called the cops on the household or how long they’d known the youngster was there.
May God bless the little child and heal her in every way possible.
