Woman Arrested 13 Years After Kidnapping Grandson
A 13-year-old kidnapping case is finally closed after Sandy Hatte, 60, was arrested in Missouri after allegedly kidnapping her infant grandson from his home in Florida. The boy has been reunited with his father and Hatte remains in jail on $25,000 bond.
"The dad was working, came home from work, and Hatte was gone with the baby," Detective Eric Menconi of the Livingston County Sheriff's Office told ABC News. "He hasn't been able to find them since."
All that changed, though, when a school official in Livingston County became suspicious of Hatte when she tried to enroll the young boy at his school. The official wondered if Hatte actually was the teen's legal guardian and noted that the pair had moved around substantially and had only lived in Livingston County for 30 days before Hatte tried to enroll the boy in school.
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Police never gave up looking for the boy, whose name has not been released since he is a minor. And a private investigator helped the police continue the search. Larry Jones of Black Hawk Investigations told Fox News that Hatte contacted him in February to say that she was having trouble getting custody of the boy.
Hatte was homeless for a time but then lived with a man who offered her a place to stay and was stunned when police showed up to arrest Hatte. He had no idea that Hatte was involved in a kidnapping or was wanted by police. Officers stopped by the school to pick up the boy before taking Hatte into custody. He was immediately reunited with his father in Alabama.
"It was a good reunion," Menconi said. "You could tell within the first three minutes they hit it off pretty well. Since then I've been on the phone with the dad and from what I'm understanding it's going very well. He's adjusting."
Hatte has been charged with felony child abduction and is being held in the Daviess/DeKalb Regional Jail on $25,000 bond.
