Family relieved after six-year-old found safe
A Saskatchewan mother says words cannot describe the relief she feels after being reunited with her daughter who police say was taken when she was left in the back of a running SUV.
An Amber Alert was issued Sunday night after police say six-year-old Emma O’Keeffe was left in the back of her parents’ running Mercedes and it was stolen from outside a strip mall in North Battleford.
The child, who is autistic, epileptic and non-verbal, was found almost 14 hours later still inside the SUV, which had been left about two kilometres from where it had been taken and was noticed by some workers who called 911.
“Words cannot express our emotions right now,” mother Alison O’Keeffe said in a Facebook post. “Emma is safe at home sleeping soundly, peacefully, surrounded by all the love in the world.”
RCMP Cpl. Rob King said officers have yet to identify any suspects in the car theft.
“We don’t know what happened from when the car was taken until when the car was found,” King said.
Emma needs medication to control her condition. She was found conscious and taken to hospital where she was checked out and then released.
King said it took a while to find the vehicle partly because it was tucked away in bushes.
Conditions in North Battleford also weren’t ideal on Sunday night.
Ryan Bater, the city’s mayor, said it was very dark outside and snow impeded visibility.
Temperatures hovered around 0 C and the city lost power for a brief period just after midnight.
But Bater said it didn’t deter people in the city and surrounding municipalities from searching. He said he grabbed a flashlight and jumped in his truck to join the hundreds of people already looking.
“This was obviously a horrific circumstance, but it was beautiful to see so many people just leave their homes, grab a flashlight and go out and help look,” said Bater.
King said the focus of the investigation remains on who was responsible for taking the vehicle and not why the child was left alone in a running car in the first place.