SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- A young mother recently abducted a four-year-old girl from foster care after a bathroom break and has since disappeared with her from a shopping mall in the U.S. state of Washington, court documents show.
Twenty-one-year-old Esmerelda Lopez-Lopez abducted her daughter Aranza Ochoa Lopez on Oct. 25 following a bathroom break during a court-ordered visit, the Oregonian, a local news outlet, reported on Sunday, quoting a search warrant affidavit.
Lopez-Lopez, who was stripped by a Washington court of the right to continue caring her daughter for abusing the four-year-old girl, was suspected of driving off in a stolen car from Vancouver Mall, a major shopping facility in the state of Washington, with Aranza and a 16-year-old that accompanied them.
Child welfare workers in Washington said Lopez-Lopez posed a danger to her child because of her history of abuse and her record of erratic behavior. Aranza has been in foster care since 2017, but Lopez-Lopez was allowed supervised visits with her daughter twice a week as of last month.
Washington authorities still haven't found Lopez-Lopez or her daughter, but investigators have obtained information indicating that Lopez-Lopez intended to take her daughter to La Libertad, near the Mexico-Guatemala border. She was also found to have logged into her Facebook account from a device in Mexico.
