Forney Amber Alert Ends In Arrest in Alaska; Boys Found
The Amber Alert issued in early November by the Forney Police Department and covered here on Twenty Peaceful Minutes ended in an arrest on Christmas Eve, and the two boys involved were found unharmed near a small village in southeastern Alaska.
U.S. marshals and Alaska State Troopers had been attempting to find Lelah Jeanne Sullivan, who was accused of custodial interference after kidnapping two of her sons from a foster home in Texas. They believed that by mid-December she had returned with the boys to Alaska, but were unable to find her. However, they continued the Amber Alert and on December 24th, crew members on a ferryboat in Alaska spotted a woman and two boys matching the description of Ms. Sullivan and her boys. They alerted the Alaska State Troopers, who apprehended the woman.
When confronted by the troopers, Ms. Sullivan gave false identifying information, but troopers were able to positively identify her and the two boys. Media reports, as well as the Texas DPS Missing Persons Clearinghouse, identify the two boys as Ms. Sullivan’s sons, but the relationship between Ms. Sullivan and the two boys was unclear, as much of Lelah Sullivan’s information and background is unknown - Detective Shane Prewitt of the Forney PD told reporters that after working the case for two months, he does not think Lelah Sullivan is the woman’s real name, but the detective stated that Forney PD believes her to be the mother of the two boys.
Media reports indicate that Sullivan had been living in Alaska, but fled the state when social workers were asking questions about her boys. Sullivan has ties to Texas - two adult sons who live in the state who told police they were raised without knowing who their fathers were, without being issued Social Security numbers and with infrequent schooling.
Sullivan is being held on $100,000 bail pending trial, and has been ordered not to have any contact with the two boys. She has been charged with two felony counts of custodial interference and obstruction of a court order. She was not charged with kidnapping, possibly because authorities believe the two boys fled the foster home on their own because they wanted to return to living with Ms. Sullivan.
For more information/sources:
Ketchikan Daily News article
Houston Chronicle article
Fort Worth Star Telegram Article
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I’m acquainted with Ms. Lelah Sullivan, and would like to know WHICH media claims that Ms. Sulli-van “had fled the state when social workers were asking questions about her boys.” WHERE did this opinion come from? That is NOT the story she gave me while the poop was hitting the fan in November! Better be more careful, Josh, since it it’s not true, there is a possible defamation suit in the making!
I listed the media articles I obtained the information from at the bottom of my post. The information you’re questioning came from the Houston Chronicle, which said:
(emphasis mine)
Prewitt is the Forney PD detective who handled the case, so if you have any proof that he made a false statement to the media, please share it so that I may update my post immediately. Any potential claim of defamation would be against Detective Prewitt and/or the Houston Chronicle, but I would appreciate any documentation you have of the detective providing false information to the media as I do pride myself on the accuracy of my posts and the information I share with the community via Twenty Peaceful Minutes.
An update on the alleged Sullivan “abduction”: I don’t call it an abduction I call it a rescue! I spoke with Ms. Sullivan’s attorney in Ketchikan, and he told me that he had spoken with the Alaskan Child Protection Services caseworkers, and they “had no problem with the home life Ms. Sullivan provided for her children.” If I’m to believe Officer Prewitt, she left BECAUSE of questions being asked by Child Protective Services in Alaska about the quality of her parenting. I saw nothing out of the way in her parenting, and I’m acquainted with her, her husband, her second son, and two youngest children for 3 1/2 years. She told me she had goe to Texas to help her two oldest sons get their documentation completed, since I believe all of her children were home births, and she does not believe in government inter-vention in anyone’s family or personal life. She had to retrieve her own birth record, stored in Texas. She told me her second born son assaulted her, and punched her in the face, he claims she tried to choke him. It’s possible that the story he gave the police and the CP social workers about “having been an abused child himself” was a fabrication brought on by vengeful motivations and anger at his mother by not providing his and his brother’s birth records and social security cards. Over a year ago, a mu-tual acquaintence of ours in Alaska told me that her second son “was angry over this”, but he never said it to me, even though he lived in my house as my em-ployee for several months, and we had many long conversations. For someone who had little or no edu-cation, he sounded and he talked like a college grad-uate. If I were you, I would not believe him, since he has ulterior motives for saying such things about his mother. It is highly inappropriate for Officer Prewitt to comment on any part of this case, since the facts have not all come out yet, on how the two younger boys were treated in Foster care, and what they were exposed to there. It’s pretty clear to me that she was justified in doing whatever it took to look after the best interests of her children, who were not receiving appropriate care by the State of Texas. As far as I’m concerned, the State of Texas is an unfit parent to foster children, if this is the best they can do!