Missing 1-Year-Old Found, Father Arrested After Amber Alert

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
March 29, 2019US News
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Missing 1-Year-Old Found, Father Arrested After Amber Alert
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Arcade Police Department said that Baylee Sue Peeples, 1, was taken by Robert Joseph Peeples, 39, early March 28, 2019. (Georgia Bureau of Investigation)

A missing 1-year-old who was feared kidnapped by her father was found safe and her dad was arrested, authorities said.

An amber alert was issued on March 28 for Baylee Sue Peeples and officials said she was taken by Robert Peeples. Baylee’s mother told local media outlets that she tried to get her daughter from Peeples’s car but he took off after saying she would never see Baylee again.

“I got out and I went to get Baylee out and he told me no, you’re not taking her out of the van, she’s going with me,” Tiffany Aycock told 11 Alive. “I tried to get her out anyways, I tried to unbuckle her and he mashed the gas and slung me out of the van … I almost went under it. If my purse hadn’t caught the tire, I’d be under it.”

Robert Peeples, also known as Joey, was arrested and booked into the Gwinnett County Jail on 10:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, according to jail records.

He was slated to be transferred to the jail in Arcade, where he allegedly kidnapped Baylee. Peeples has a long arrest record across four different counties in the state and has allegedly made threats against Baylee’s mother in the past.

The charges he’s faced include battery, second-degree disorderly conduct, and parole violations, reported 11 Alive.

Arcade Police Chief Randy Williams said during a news conference after Baylee was found that police wanted to hear Peeples’s side of the story.

NTD Photo
(Gwinnett County Jail)

“We want to hear his side of the story and find out why he did this,” he said, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We don’t want him to feel that his back is against the wall, because we will work with anybody, but he’s got to come in and tell his side of the story.”

Police didn’t say whether he ended up surrendering or whether he was located. Officials said he dropped Baylee off at his mother’s house around 2 p.m.

Williams said charges against Peeples would likely face aggravated assault and kidnapping charges.

Kidnapping

According to the Polly Klaas Foundation, approximately 200,000 children are kidnapped each year by a family member.

Child custody experts said that people kidnap their own children to force a reconciliation or continued interaction with the other, left-behind parent; to spite or punish the other parent; from fear of losing custody or visitation rights.

In rare cases, the kidnapping may occur to protect a child from a parent who is believed to be abusing the child.

Common warnings signs include the other parent threatening abduction, suspected abuse, or paranoid delusion.

The number of reported missing children has significantly decreased in recent years, according to a report by the Department of Justice (pdf) in 2017. Reported missing children dropped from 6.5 per 1,000 children in 1999 to 3.1 per 1,000 in 2013.

Missing children typically fall into five categories: kidnapped by a family member, abducted by a nonfamily perpetrator, runaways, those who got lost, stranded, or injured, or those who went missing due to benign reasons, such as misunderstandings, according to the report.

Department of Justice researchers said in a separate report (pdf) published in 2016 that there were an estimated 105 children nationwide that were victims of stereotypical kidnappings, a number that was virtually the same as 1997.

“Most kidnappings involved the use of force or threats, and about three in five victims were sexually assaulted, abused, or exploited, the researchers said.

Stereotypical kidnappings are defined as abductions in which a slight acquaintance or stranger moves a child at least 20 feet or holds the child at least 1 hour.

Most victims were girls aged 12 to 17 and most perpetrators were men aged 18 to 35.

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