7 Siblings Missing: Found Safe With Father After FBI Manhunt
Seven missing siblings have been found safe after an intense manhunt led by an FBI task force in California. The children had been reported missing on Saturday but were eventually found safe and sound with their father.
According to reports, Xa Yang has been estranged from his family for years but wanted to see his seven children. He had made contact with the family in December and requested to see his children but was denied. The family didn't hear from him again.
However, when their mother and stepfather left them alone on Thursday, Yang made his move and took the children, and all of their clothes, to his own home in Sacramento.
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"We thought maybe he's probably watching and he knew we left for the store and maybe he just came over," Bee Lor, the children's stepfather, told ABC News after learning the children were gone.
"We went and knocked doors – door by door – all around at nighttime," Lor said. "We thought maybe our children might play around with the friends around here, the neighbors."
Police never issued an Amber Alert because they did not think the children were in any danger, Fresno police Sgt. Jaime Rios told the Associated Press. However, the police did issue a call to the public for help in locating Yang, as they did not have an address for the man.
On Thursday, the FBI task force was able to locate Yang and the children and safely remove them from his home. They were returned to their mother, who has custody, and were "unharmed and in good spirits," according to Rios.
Police are investigating to determine whether a crime was actually committed. According to ABC News, there is no formal custody agreement in place and Yang was within his legal right to see the children for up to 10 days as long as he kept in communication with the kids' mother.
