UPDATE: Kids Found Safe, Amber Alert Canceled
ANDERSON (CBS13) -- A woman accused of taking two children with her overnight, prompting an Amber Alert, was taken into custody Monday night and the children were being returned home safely to their parents.
The woman, 31-year-old April Joy Swartz, was watching Mya Sandoval, 5, and Michael Sandoval, 7, on Sunday and left with them and her own three small children for a fishing trip. They never returned home to Anderson.
After the Amber Alert went out Monday afternoon, a citizen in the town of Mountain Gate about 30 miles north spotted Swartz's vehicle, a white GMC Yukon, and called 911 at about 8:20 p.m. The Shasta County Sheriff's Office saturated the area and had assistance from a CHP helicopter.
Swartz's vehicle was found in the driveway of a house on Copper Canyon Road and both Sandoval children were inside it. Swartz was found inside the house and taken into custody for child endangerment and kidnapping.
"It' just a huge relief," the kids' mother, Katie Sandoval, told CBS13's Neda Iranpour in front of her home at the Roosters Landing Fishing Resort park.
Swartz was traveling with her own three children, all under the age of 5 years old, in addition to the Sandoval siblings.
Katie had left them with Swartz and reported them missing at 10:44 p.m. Sunday when they never returned from fishing.
"She said she was going to take them fishing for an hour, and that was it," Katie Sandoval said.
Swartz was later seen with the children and witnesses said she appeared to be under the influence.
