Mother In Custody After Snatching Son From Sister's Home
SWISSVALE (KDKA) -- Police in Swissvale took a woman into custody Thursday night after she snatched her child from her sister's Melrose Street home several hours earlier.
Xia Lomax's sister has had legal custody of the 2-year-old boy since he was born.
Lomax reportedly took with the child when a family friend said her sister was away at work.
"To my understanding the biological mother of the baby came back and just basically kidnapped the baby while the aunt, which is her sister [who] has custody of the baby, was at work," said Jonetta McCowan, a family friend. "She came in the house, tore the place up and just took the baby."
At first, police thought they were headed to Erie, but they stayed in the area and kept driving around.
Swissvale Police Lt. Matt Lisovich says 911 dispatchers were able to "ping" Lomax's cell phone, and tracked her movements through GPS.
"Our 911 people were incredible for this," said Lt. Lisovich. "They were able to track the phone number down, get through the phone company and then started 'pinging' the cell phone, and they were able to start giving us GPS locations. I believe the first one we got was somewhere around McKeesport and it just started slowly moving over our way."
The boy appeared fine when he was reunited with is aunt, but he'll be checked out as a precaution.
Lomax may face charges of kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child.
RELATED LINKS:
More Swissvale News
More Local News
