Memphis children missing for nearly a year found alive near Miami; mother facing charges

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 8/28/2020, 10:59 a.m.
Two children missing for nearly a year in Memphis have been found near Miami and now their mother is facing …
Two children missing for nearly a year in Memphis have been found near Miami and now their mother is facing charges./Credit: WREG via state police

By WEB STAFF

MEMPHIS, TN (WREG) -- Two children missing for nearly a year in Memphis have been found near Miami and now their mother is facing charges.

Officers fear the children may have fallen victim to a human trafficking ring. One of them was admitted to a hospital while the other is in protective custody.

This all happened in Biscayne Park, just north of Miami.

Officers found one of the girls barefoot, disoriented and wandering the streeets. She told them she hurt her foot while escaping and that she had no idea where she was. She could only tell officers the color of the house she left and two house numbers.

That was enought to lead officers to the home of her mother Sandra Bates.

Police said when they arrived they found the girl’s nine-year-old sister hidden in a closet.

Bates was arrested and charged with kidnapping. She allegedly abducted the girls and their teenage brother after all three ran away from a foster home in southeast Memphis last September.

This morning police are still searching for the brother. Police believe he was in Florida with his siblings but he was not there when officers searched the home.

Bates remains in jail in Miami but will be brought back to Memphis.

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