EDEN, N.C. — UPDATE (10:30 a.m. 11/23/23.): Eden police said the suspect were found in Henry County, Va. They are awaiting extradition back to the Triad.
UPDATE (5:55 p.m. 11/22/23): Eden police said the child is safe and back with its mother. The Odyssey was located on Henry St. in Stoneville at a vacant house. The suspects were seen at a nearby business on foot on Thomas Street.
UPDATE (3:11 p.m. 11/22/23): Eden police said the van was located in Stoneville but the suspects are still at large.
Officers are asking for the public's assistance in locating a man and woman after police say they stole a vehicle with a child inside in Eden Wednesday.
Eden police said they responded to Lee’s Little Explorers Child Care Center at 1217 Lewis Street in reference to a child abduction.
Officers said they learned that a white 2016 Honda Odyssey van was stolen from the parking lot with a one-year-old child inside.
Police said the mother of the child had walked into the daycare to drop off other children. The van was left unlocked with the engine running when witnesses said they saw a man and woman get into the car and drive away after the mother went inside the daycare.
Police later found the child had been dropped off at a home on Settlement Loop Road shortly after 9 a.m.
The caller on Settlement Loop Road said that someone rang their doorbell and when they answered the door, a child in a car seat was on the porch.
They said they saw a woman with short brown/reddish hair running to a white van that was parked in the roadway.
The woman got into the passenger seat of the van and then left the area headed toward Highway 770.
Investigators are seeking the public's assistance in locating the stolen van.
The van has a North Carolina License plate of KCS7873. On the back glass of the van, there are window stickers of a stick family and two dogs. The owner of the van also said there were flowers hanging from the rearview mirror.
If you see the van, police ask that you call 911 immediately.
Investigators have been able to identify and obtain warrants on Gary Lee Alverson, 40, and Sarah Michele Newton, 35, for First Degree Kidnapping and Larceny of a motor vehicle.
Both Newton and Alverson have previous addresses from Bardstown, Kentucky.
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