Sunrise Police Make Second Arrest In Parental Kidnapping
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SUNRISE (CBSMiami) – Sunrise Police said they have made a second arrest in a parental kidnapping that had a 3-year-old girl separated from her father for more than a year.
On Friday, 35-year-old Carlos Carrie Lesters III was taken into custody and charged with kidnapping, interference with custody and concealing minors contrary to a court order.
Lesters allegedly helped Megan Everett runaway with her 3-year-old daughter, Lilly Abigail.
Robert Baumann, Lilly's father, recalled the day they went missing in May of 2014.
Baumann said when he went to pick up his daughter, but Lesters – Everett's boyfriend at the time – told him the two didn't live there anymore and slammed the door in his face.
A federal court filing showed Everett left a note for Lesters saying she was taking her daughter away because she didn't want "them" to "vaccinate her" and "brainwash her."
Baumann's quest to find his daughter was featured in an episode of CNN's "The Hunt with John Walsh" this weekend.
A landlord watching the show called in a tip, that she recognized the girl and her mother as tenants, who had moved in very recently.
With that new information, authorities caught up with Everett on Monday near Palatka, just east of Gainesville.
Authorities said Lesters visited Everett and her child on multiple occasions and had known their whereabouts without reporting it to the police.
Baumann believes his ex-girlfriend should be prosecuted, saying parental kidnapping is just as serious as stranger abduction.
Baumann has since been reunited with Lilly and said he's looking into the possibility of getting therapy for his daughter to help her transition back to her life in South Florida. At his point, however, he says he's taking it day-by-day, hour-by-hour.
