Missing Children Found in Trailer; Babysitter Arrested for Kidnapping

Two young children were pulled to safety by Atlanta police after officers found them locked inside a trailer with a babysitter accused of abducting them and holding them for nearly 48 hours.

Zola Cooper, 4, and her 11-month-old sister, Norah Cooper, were reported missing Saturday night and located Monday afternoon after authorities launched an intensive search at an apartment complex.

Investigators used cellphone data and tips from residents to narrow their search to the trailer. Atlanta Police Department Detective Sherrod Stancil told reporters Wednesday that as he approached it, he heard what sounded like “a baby cooing.”

“Detective Berhalter then proceeded to bang on it a lot louder,” Stancil said during a press conference. “Once he had done that, I heard what I knew was the sound of a child crying.”

The Atlanta Police Department’s bodycam video shows officers forcing their way into the trailer with a cinder block and bolt cutters before finding the girls inside with Lakesha Brown, 42. Both children were crying as officers entered and quickly carried them out.

An arrest warrant obtained by FOX 5 Atlanta said the temperature was 97 degrees Fahrenheit when officers discovered the children.

Police said the cluttered trailer had no air conditioning and that the only source of cool air was a box fan.

“We also noticed that there seemed to be a mini fridge and a television. In my opinion, that’s clearly where [Brown] was living,” Stancil said.

Stancil also said the 11-month-old child’s diaper was full when the girls were rescued, adding that it did not “look like there were any restroom facilities” nearby.

Police said both children were “reunited with their mother in good health,” police said.

Brown was arrested and charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, court records show.

After Brown was arrested, Atlanta police discovered she had an active arrest warrant for failing to appear in court for a separate child kidnapping case in Alabama that involved a newborn baby, People reported.

Brown denied being involved in the August 2021 kidnapping of the 4-day-old child, but authorities said she posted pictures of the boy to her social media.

In the Atlanta case, the girls were reported missing at around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night by their mother, Elica Redding, police said.

Redding had left the girls with Brown, whom she described as a friend of hers, at around 6 p.m. so she could go out dinner, police said. She called 911 roughly four hours later, explaining that Brown still had not returned the kids.

“[Brown] told me there was an accident, but she’s not answering her phone,” Redding told the dispatcher, according to audio first obtained by FOX 5 Atlanta.

Redding said Brown told her that they were taken to a hospital, but when Redding called every hospitals she could, there was no record of her kids being admitted at any of them.

Redding told investigators she first met Brown on social media before the two subsequently met six or seven times in person, Lieutenant Christapher Butler said Wednesday.

Police have said Brown posed as a babysitter in a Facebook group for pregnant mothers.

“It really just looks like the suspect preyed on her,” Butler said. “And then she was able to gain her confidence enough to take her children.”

Butler said Brown was cooperative with investigators but declined to offer more information about any possible motives since the case is ongoing.