Authorities say the two boys whose apparent abduction set off an Amber Alert this morning have been found unharmed in northwest Florida, and their mother is wanted by the law.
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office along with the Louisiana State Police and the FBI were searching for 8-year-old Kaesyn Heck, and 4-year-old Jax Matthews.
Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Jimmy Travis says the father had got out of the car to retrieve a tool from his garage, and left his boys in there with the engine running. He says that is when the boys' mother just happened to come by the house, saw the running vehicle, got in, and drove it to Florida.
"Just before lunch, we were able to identify through a witness that the suspect was actually the biological mother of the children," said Sheriff Travis.
The sheriff said the mother, Shawntel Heck, had just received a ride to the children's house and happened upon the running vehicle.
"The kids are in the car, the car's sitting their running, the doors are unlocked, and she got in it and she fled," the sheriffs said.
The boys were found unharmed; the mother fled on foot into the woods of the panhandle, northeast of Pensacola.
