A Kansas City, KS toddler who was abducted while sleeping in the back seat of a car has been found safe. On July 12th, 2017, a man left his girlfriend’s car running while he went inside a Kansas City gas station to get her three-year-old daughter a drink. The little girl remained in the backseat, asleep. Police say that’s when Tyler Letzig, 28, and Karri Reich, 29, took the car with the girl inside.
Police cordoned off the Valero gas station at 7th and Riverview and quickly released surveillance of the two suspects to the media. The video shows the suspects — a man in a green T-shirt and a woman in a blue one-piece short set — enter the gas station separately on more than one occasion and later converse near a gas pump.
The woman re-enters the store while the car with the child pulls up beside an older model white utility van the suspects allegedly drove. The man in green can be seen on video canvassing a silver 2016 Ford Focus as the driver exits the vehicle. The driver of the Ford enters the store, and the woman in the blue short set exits. The woman briefly speaks with the male suspect then jumps in the Ford and drives away.
Within an hour of the abduction, investigators say the boyfriend’s cell phone pinged several miles away in Leavenworth County. Officers from the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, Wyandotte County sheriff’s deputies, troopers from the Kansas Highway Patrol, and federal agents all aided in the search. When the pinging stopped in the area of Interstate 70 and 206th Street, police requested help from other law enforcement agencies with an aircraft but none were immediately available.
The little girl, 3 year old Amaya Vestor was found safe near the abandoned vehicle around 8pm in a rural area of Tonganoxie after a local television station’s helicopter spotted the stolen car in Leavenworth County. Responding to the initial reports of a child abduction and stolen vehicle, SkyTracker headed to Leavenworth County to track down the location from the cell phone ping. SkyTracker pilot Captain Gregg Bourdon and photographer James Moore scanned the area and noticed an abandoned, silver vehicle matching the description of the car stolen. A quick call back to the station to update the newsroom, and 41 Action News Assignment Editor Steve Kaut alerted law enforcement.
A sheriff deputy came right under the helicopter and made his way down the road until he could see the child get out of the car. SkyTracker captured the reunion from 2,000 feet in the air. The male suspect, Tyler Letzig-reportedly was apprehended Thursday by authorities in Leavenworth County. The female suspect, Karri Reich-is still on the run. Tyler Letzig and Karri Anne Reich were each charged Friday with one count of kidnapping, child endangerment and theft.
Update: Karri Reich turned herself in and was booked into the Wyandotte County Jail Tuesday morning.
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