últimas notícias

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — A 6-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted in 2019 from an upstate county was found Monday night hidden with her mother in a “small, cold and wet” space under a staircase in her grandfather’s home on Fawn Road, Saugerties police said Tuesday.

Paislee Shultis was 4 years old when she was reported missing in 2019 in West Central New York state. At the time, the child was believed to have been abducted by her non-custodial biological parents, Kimberly Cooper, 33, and Kirk Shultis Jr., 32, police said Tuesday.

The location of the child’s disappearance which was provided by police Tuesday could not be immediately confirmed.

On Monday, after receiving information indicating that the child was being hidden in a home at 35 Fawn Road in the town of Saugerties, police obtained a warrant authorizing a search of the residence.

Just after 8 p.m. Monday, Saugerties police detectives, uniformed officers, state police detectives from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and uniformed state troopers executed the warrant.

Police said the owner, Kirk Shultis Sr., 57, Paislee’s grandfather, denied any knowledge of the child’s whereabouts and told officers he hadn’t seen her since she was reported missing in 2019.

But during the search, Saugerties Detective Erik Thiele “noticed something about the staircase leading from the back of the residence into the basement of the house that caught his attention,” police said. Thiele thought the construction of the steps were odd and something was out of place. Using a flashlight, he was able to see what he believed to be a blanket through cracks in the wooden steps.

Upon inspecting the staircase, the structure appeared to be solid, but detectives removed several of the wooden steps, “and that is when detectives saw a pair of tiny feet. After removing several more steps, the child and her abductor were discovered within,” police said.

Paislee and Cooper were found in  “a makeshift room, under a closed staircase leading to the basement of the residence,” according to the release.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said the child was quiet while officers searched for her for about four hours on Monday evening. He said the hiding place had obviously been used frequently. He said, “it’s our belief at this time” that Paislee has been kept in Saugerties since her disappearance in 2019.

Paislee was taken to police headquarters where she was met by paramedics from DIAZ ambulance, examined and released in good health, police said.

Sinagra said Paisley was “well taken care of and in good health. The only problem is she hasn’t attended school and they weren’t educating her at the house.”

Cooper was charged with custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors. She was also wanted on an active warrant issued through Ulster County Family Court. Cooper was arraigned in Saugerties Town Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail on the warrant. Cooper is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Paislee’s father, Kirk Shultis Jr. was charged with the felony of custodial interference and the misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child.

Kirk Shultis Sr. was charged with the felony of custodial interference and the misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child.

Both Shultises were arraigned in Saugerties Town Court and released with appearance tickets for a later date. Stay-away orders of protection were issued by the court against all three defendants.

All three defendants have appearances scheduled in Saugerties Town Court at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16.

The investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are pending, police said.

Sinagra said Paislee has been reunited with her legal guardian and her older sister at an undisclosed location. He said she remembered her sister.

On her way to reunite with her legal guardian and her sister, Sinagra said the girl was thrilled to pass the McDonald’s restaurant on state Route 212 and told the detective who was driving that she’d not had any fast food in a very long time.

“The detective turned the car around and went into McDonald’s and got her food from McDonald’s,” Sinagra said.

Police are still trying to piece together the full story of Paislee’s abduction, but believe she was taken directly to Saugerties and “they hid out at his father’s house,” Sinagra said.

The chief said Cooper and Shultis lost custody of both of their children in 2019 and that, on the day that authorities were to take custody of the girls, while her older sister was at school, the parents disappeared with Paislee and took her to Saugerties.

He said that, on a number of occasions, police “received leads that [Paislee] was at that house. A number of times we would go there and sometimes we were met with resistance and at other times they’d say, ‘oh, no, you can come in and look around. There’s nobody here. The child’s not here.’

“And our belief is that at times when we went into the residence, although we were given limited access, they were using this location to hide the child,” he said.

Shultis Jr. “resurfaced” shortly after the disappearance and told authorities Cooper had moved to Pennsylvania and that he’d had no contact with her since the disappearance.

“He’s even gone to court and told the court he had no idea where the child was,” Sinagra said.

“It’s nice to know that the child’s been located and that the child is healthy and safe. That’s the most important thing at the end of the day,” Sinagra said.

Editor’s note: This story was amended on Feb. 15, 2022, at 4:35 p.m. to correct that the location of the child’s disappearance was not Tompinks County, which was provided by police Tuesday. The Cayuga Heights Police Department said in a press release, that, “After speaking with members of the Town of Saugerties Police Department and conducting a search of the Tompkins County-wide reporting system, it was confirmed that the juvenile was not missing from the Village of Cayuga Heights or any other location within Tompkins County.”