SYLVESTER, Ga.–Found safe in Sylvester, Georgia early Thursday, the amber alert for two-year-old Maliah Harris of Caledonia has been canceled. Her parents, Donald Harris and Allison Studdard, have been arrested.
Police told media late Wednesday that meth and ice were found in the home where the toddler and her parents lived, along with a seven-month-old who died Wednesday morning.
Lowndes County investigators said the parents found the child not breathing and called 9-11. After that, they took off in their 2002 Aztec. That’s the reason police thought the child could be in danger and an amber alert went out. The Aztec had a Georgia license plate.
That amber alert stretched all the way to Georgia and could be seen on highway alert signs there.
Meanwhile an autopsy Wednesday on the seven-month-old did not conclusively say what caused her death. The state medical examiner’s office was expected to do further study. It did not look like the girl had been beaten or was subjected to any other kind of trauma.
After the parents took off Wednesday morning, video surveillance footage showed the car and the dad at a convenience store in Alabama. News station 11Alive in Atlanta reported that, according to Sylvester, Ga. Police Sgt. Dean King, the couple’s Pontiac Aztec was spotted by Sylvester police traveling eastbound on Highway 821 around midnight. The car was stopped and authorities said they found Maliah Harris and her father.
The 2-year-old, who was said to be in good health, will be taken into state custody until she can be turned over to the proper Mississippi authorities.
Donald Boyd Harris will be turned over to the GBI or Mississippi authorities.
The young girl’s mother, Allison Studdard, was not in the car and King did not where she was. WTVA reported that both parents had been taken into custody, according to Lowndes County Chief Deputy Marc Miley.
