Welcome to Arrest Stories. A twenty-three-year-old transient woman was arrested in Phoenix after allegedly abducting a three-year-old girl from her Avondale home, with the child found safe at a gas station thanks to alert community members. Here's what may have happened.
On Friday night, February twentieth at eleven thirty p.m., three-year-old Kehlani Rogers went missing from her home near one hundred nineteenth Avenue and Thomas Road in Avondale, Arizona. The next morning at eight a.m., the child's parents called police to report that both Rogers and Marina Noriega were missing from their residence.
Noriega had been staying with the family as what police described as "a random woman who family members brought to the residence to help as she was transient and needed a place to stay." The parents knew her only by her first name Marina. Noriega had told the family she was dropped off in Arizona from California and had nowhere to stay, claiming her boyfriend and father were in prison.
Police activated an Amber Alert on Saturday afternoon. Investigators believe Noriega planned to take Rogers to Maricopa and catch a train to California. Authorities conducted surveillance at the Maricopa train station on Saturday but did not locate them.
On Sunday morning, the pair was spotted at a QuikTrip gas station in Phoenix. A security guard at the location recognized both the victim and suspect after receiving the Amber Alert the day before. A moving crew happened to be at the gas station when the situation unfolded.
One crew member stated, "I overheard the security guard that works there often talking to the police about the girl and that he thinks he just saw her in there." Another crew member said, "That's the little girl in that truck."
The moving crew worked together to box in Noriega's pickup truck, preventing her escape. One crew member said, "I'm just going to leave the truck right here then. So he couldn't leave."
Police arrived promptly and took Noriega into custody. During questioning, she admitted to smoking methamphetamine the day before while having control of the child. Noriega denied having any plan for the child and denied intent to sell or harm her.
Rogers was found safe and in good health. Noriega's bond was set at two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.