Ronique Pittman attempts to kidnap 11 year old daughter after losing custodial rights earlier this year. Child was kidnapped out of Iowa before biological mother is arrested driving through Indiana on the way to her North Carolina residence.
An East Coast mother has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping her own daughter after the woman earlier this year losing custodial rights to the 11 year old girl.
Ronique Pittman, 36, is alleged to have kidnapped the eleven year old girl on Sunday out of Iowa before the girl was ‘safely’ found at an Indiana gas station some 360 miles away the following morning.
The child was ‘abducted’ from Iowa City by a non-custodial parent who was trying to take the child back to her Goldsboro, North Carolina residence, WTHR reported.
Mom arrested on child abduction warrant of her own biological daughter
Authorities who had deducted that the non custodial parent had ‘taken’ the girl said they believed the mother would travel through Indiana, and alerted Indiana State Police at around 2am Monday to be on the look out.
The Indiana State Police immediately started searching, and identified a suspect vehicle, a gray 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix at a gas station off Interstate 65 just about 40 minutes later, CBS 2 Iowa reported.
Officers then found the child safely inside the vehicle with two adults.
Pittman was then taken into custody on a child abduction warrant out of Iowa.
The woman has since been charged in Johnson County with violating a custodial order by a relative, The Daily Iowan reports.
A criminal complaint obtained by CBS 2 Iowa shows Pittman had her parental rights taken away on May 5, 2022.
Authorities said she told the child’s father she planned to take the child to the East Coast where she lived.
The 11 year old was safely taken into custody by the Indiana State Police, before going to the Department of Child Services to arrange a reunion with the custodial parent.
Not immediately clear is what led to the biological mother losing custodial rights to her own child.
