SARAH DAWSON - 3 yo - Fraziers Bottom (NW of Charleston) WV

Yuma AZ ---- A couple from Putnam County has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping their
3-year- old granddaughter.
Sarah Dawson of Fraziers Bottom WV vanished on February 10th, according to the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children.
The Center says three days later felony kidnapping warrants were issued for
Donna and Johnny Mays. They are the parents of the child’s mom.



Earlier this week, Yuma Police reported that the Mays were arrested during a traffic stop
on Interstate 8 near Dateland after getting a tip they were in the area.
Police said the motive for the alleged kidnapping was to keep the child away
from her father who was recently awarded visitation rights.
The station says child protective services will take custody of Sarah until she could be reunited with her mother.

For once I can't say I'm happy she has been found. The grandparents must love Sarah and fear for her well-being. The authorities need to heed their concerns or else we may be talking about Sarah in other threads in the future.

A 3-year-old Putnam County girl abducted by her grandparents in February
was found Tuesday alive and well in Arizona.
Sarah Dawson of Fraziers Bottom was found with her grandparents in Yuma
County, which borders Mexico and is about a two-hour drive from Phoenix.

Her grandparents, Donna and Johnny Mays, have been arrested on a
fugitive warrant in Arizona and face two counts of custodial
interference in West Virginia, said State Police Sgt. K.S. Dickson of
the Winfield detachment.
Their granddaughter has been turned over to Arizona Child Protective
Services, Dickson said.
The girl's mother, Carrie Lynn Essman, is on her way to Arizona to pick
her up, he said.
Essman, who was a long-distance truck driver, had relinquished custody
of her daughter to her parents, and also was living with them in their
home in Fraziers Bottom, he said.
The Mayses cleaned out their bank account and retirement fund, and fled
with their granddaughter Feb. 10, after Essman was granted custody,
which also included visitation rights for the girl's father, he said.

"They were basically the people that was raising the child ... and they
just didn't agree with the family judge," Dickson said.
The father had very limited contact with his daughter, and there were no
accounts of abuse reported, the trooper said.
Police had previously tracked the couple and their granddaughter to
Kansas, where they had relatives, Dickson said. Police recovered their
car there.
Dickson said he contacted the Arizona Department of Public Safety May 5,
after police received an anonymous tip about their location.
"We got in touch with the people in Yuma," he said. "They were able to
do some checking on their end and were able to obtain an address."
Police in Arizona tracked the couple to their home in Dateland, Dickson
said.
They were not home when police arrived, but another officer saw their
car on a local interstate, pulled them over and arrested them, an
officer with the Yuma County Sheriff's Department said.
The couple was in Yuma County to see a friend of Johnny Mays, Dickson
said. When they arrived in Arizona, they found out the man had died
several years before, he said. They stayed with the man's wife for a
while, then found a place of their own in the area, he said.
Johnny and Donna Mays were arraigned in an Arizona court Wednesday and
are being held at the Yuma County Jail without bond. They have another
hearing Friday, where the county prosecutor will decide whether to file
additional charges.
Dickson said the couple would be brought back to West Virginia to face
the two counts of custodial interference.
"It's just a matter if they come willingly or fight the extradition," he
said