The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police: Missing boy found safe; father hid in closet
Mom was stabbed and son was taken, officers report.
and Alexis Stevens
A 5-year-old Kennesaw boy who police said was abducted after his mother was stabbed Thursday night has been found safe.
Ethan Peterman was believed to have been taken by his father, Joseph T. Davis, after Davis stabbed the boy’s mother, Kennesaw police Officer Scott Luther said. They were last seen in the 2100 block of Ellison Lakes Drive around 6:30 p.m.
The boy was found safe before daybreak Friday at a home in DeKalb County.
DeKalb police Capt. S.R. Fore said officers went to a home on Landover Drive around 4 a.m. at the request of Kennesaw police.
The homeowner came to the door, and told officers that Davis was upstairs in a bedroom and the child was asleep downstairs, Fore said in an email.
“Officers located the child uninjured and asleep downstairs,” Fore said. “They proceeded upstairs and located Davis hiding in a closet.”
Davis was taken into custody without incident, and turned over to Kennesaw police. The boy was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston for evaluation.
The boy’s mother, whose name has not been released, was stabbed multiple times at an apartment complex off Cobb Parkway, Luther said. She ran out of her apartment screaming for help and neighbors called 911. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital. There was no immediate word on her condition.
Davis, 35, had threatened the woman in 2013 in front of their son after illegally entering her home, according to a Cobb County warrant.
“I will murder you,” said Davis, according to the warrant. “You will only leave here in a body bag.”
Davis repeatedly stalked and harassed the woman and child, once keeping them three hours against their will in her home, the warrant said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting with the case. VALDOSTA — Foxes in South Georgia thought to be rabid last week are not, according to a Lowndes County official.
Instead, they are infected with distemper, said Lowndes County Clerk Paige Dukes.
Distemper poses no threat to humans, she said.
“Also, both of these diseases (distemper and rabies) are something pet owners should have their dogs vaccinated against,” Dukes said.
Pet owners can get the distemper vaccine for their dogs during the first year of life, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.