Twin 6-month old boys who were stolen from their mother’s vehicle in Columbus have been found.
On December 19th, Wilhelmina Barnett left her car running outside of a restaurant, while she went inside to get her food. Her twin boys, Ky’air and Kason, were in the backseat of the vehicle, when a female suspect stole the car.
Ky’air and Kason were found days apart, in different states. The alleged perpetrator, Nalah T. Jackson, is facing two federal charges that could each land her 20 years to life imprisonment.
Ky’air was found December 20th, abandoned outside of the Dayton International Airport. Kason was located on December 22nd, near Indianapolis, through the help of two women, Shyann Belmar and Mecka Curry.
On December 20th, Shyann Belmar bought toys from a woman who called herself “Mae”, then offered her a ride to a store. During the drive, Mae started behaving strangely, prompting Belmar to take a video of her behavior. Later, a conversation between Belmar and her cousin, Mecka Curry, would lead both women to believe that Mae was truly Nalah T. Jackson.
Of matching the person in her home video to the mugshots police had posted, Belmar said, “I wanted just to verify it before I got her locked up.”
In the following days, Mae contacted Belmar to try to sell her more objects. Belmar and Curry decided to take Mae to a store and call the police to have her arrested. However, it was difficult to communicate the situation to the police with Mae in the vehicle, so the cousins split up. Belmar took Mae to different stores, while Curry tried to convince detectives that they had found the wanted woman.
Finally, the police called Curry while they were driving down the highway. Curry pretended to be speaking with a friend and told police where to intercept the vehicle. A traffic stop was conducted, but the responding officer remained unsure that Mae was actually Jackson, and suggested taking the suspect to a women’s shelter. After Curry showed the officer a mugshot of Jackson, however, police took “Mae” into custody.
A Honda with Kason inside of it was found in a parking lot on Indiana Avenue within hours.
The children were reunited with Barnett, although the story would take a bittersweet turn. January 28th, a month after he came home, Ky’air—who was found unresponsive—passed of an apparent seizure.
“Please let me grieve Ky’air,” Barnett said, in a now removed post on Instagram. “We are nothing without you.”
Sources:
https://www.instagram.com/moobaddie/
Photo Credit: Columbus Division of Police
