Estranged mother may have taken son from day-care center
Wednesday February 05, 2003LAKEWOOD, Calif. (AP) Authorities are searching for a missing 5-year-old boy who may have been taken by his estranged mother from a child-care center.
Darrell Tapia was taken Tuesday between 11:40 a.m. and 6 p.m., said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Chuck Stringham. Authorities said the boy's foster mother went to pick him up Tuesday at the day-care center in Lakewood where administrators told her that Darrell had left with another woman.
Sheriff's investigators believe that woman was the child's estranged mother, 44-year-old Ernestina Tapia, who does not have custody of her son.
Tapia took her son last April and both were found a short time later in Portland, Stringham said. Authorities suspect Tapia may be headed to Portland again via bus or train.
A regional child abduction alert was declared Wednesday. Darrell was last seen wearing black shorts, a green sweat shirt and a blue denim jacket with a Mickey Mouse design on the back.
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