Updated

Updated · WVTM13 Birmingham · Aug 19

Atlanta Police Find 2 Abducted Children in Trailer, Arrest Babysitter With Prior Kidnapping Warrant

Updated

Updated · WVTM13 Birmingham · Aug 19

Atlanta Police Find 2 Abducted Children in Trailer, Arrest Babysitter With Prior Kidnapping Warrant

Q: What drove a trusted caregiver to hide two young sisters in a trailer, and what was her ultimate plan?

There is no confirmed answer yet to what drove Lakesha Brown or what her ultimate plan was. Atlanta police have said only that Brown, a babysitter trusted by the girls’ mother for about a year, allegedly failed to return 4-year-old Zola Cooper and 11-month-old Norah Cooper after being left to watch them Saturday evening. Investigators tracked her to the Sylvan Road area, heard a baby crying, and found Brown and both girls inside a trailer. The children were recovered safely and taken for medical evaluation. Police have been explicit that they do not yet know Brown’s motive. No charging documents or public statements released so far explain why she hid the sisters or what she intended to do next. The strongest clue comes from Brown’s prior Alabama case in 2021, where she was accused of taking a 4-day-old infant and was linked by investigators to social media posts suggesting she had claimed to have given birth. That history may suggest a pattern of abducting children and possibly presenting them as her own, but authorities in the Atlanta case have not confirmed that theory. So, based on the available facts, Brown appears to have deliberately concealed the children after gaining the mother’s trust, but her motive and endgame remain under investigation.

3 articles · Updated · WVTM13 Birmingham · Aug 19

Bodycam footage released Tuesday shows Atlanta officers finding two abducted Georgia children inside a private trailer on Sylvan Road and arresting babysitter Lakesha Brown.
A tip from someone at the property sent the fugitive unit to the trailer; detectives heard a baby crying, entered, and found the children, who appeared in good health and were taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The children had been taken Saturday around 6 p.m. from James P. Brawley Drive NW, and police said the mother delayed calling 911 after Brown falsely claimed she was returning them and later said she had been in an accident.
Brown, from Birmingham, had gained the mother's trust over about a year and was already wanted in Alabama for failing to appear in a separate kidnapping case with similar circumstances as investigators seek a motive.