By Erin Alberty with the Salt Lake Tribune
After tracking a suspected kidnapper from the East Coast to Utah, federal agents and police on Sunday tackled the woman to the ground at a
West
Valley
City
gas station, just a few yards from the 4-year-old daughter she had threatened to kill.
Investigators in
Philadelphia
began looking for the child and her mother, Laura Kilmer, about a month ago when the girl’s
father reported that the mother took the child from his
custody and fled, said supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal Jim Phelps. Kilmer had told the father that she would kill her daughter and herself if police tried to contact her or follow her.
“They were very concerned because ... they felt [Kilmer] had some mental health issues, and she was capable of doing it,” Phelps said. They also learned she had bought a handgun, Phelps said.
Agents found evidence Kilmer had been in
Florida
and was switching license plates and going by aliases, Phelps said. Then, on Feb. 17, they received word that she had been in
Garfield
County
. Her car had run out of gas and she was asking strangers for money, prompting a passer-by to call the sheriff’s department. Kilmer showed deputies a birth certificate with what turned out to be a fake name, Phelps said.
Investigators suspected Kilmer was planning to visit her sister in
West
Valley
City
, Phelps said. On Friday afternoon, a task force of agents and police officers found Kilmer’s car outside the sister’s house. They watched the house and waited for Kilmer to get far enough away from her daughter for them to safely reach the child.
On Sunday, after an argument with someone else in the house, Kilmer hugged her sister and left with her daughter. Officers followed them to a gas station.
“Fortunately, she was using cash, so she had to go inside to pay,” Phelps said. As Kilmer approached the store, officers tackled her while other officers took the young girl out of the car. The child was not injured, but her appearance had changed.
“The picture showed this cute little girl with long, bright red hair. The mother completely trimmed it down to where she almost looked like a little boy,” Phelps said.
Initially, the girl denied her real name — apparently coached, Phelps said. After an officer gave her a Slurpee, she confirmed her real name. She also said she “was happy to sleep in a bed again,” Phelps said, leading investigators to believe she had spent the last month sleeping on floors and in the car.
“The best part was to be able to call the father of this child and let him know we had her,” Phelps said. “He totally broke down. He was crying and yelling to other people with him, ‘They’ve got her! They’ve got her!’ ”
The father was scheduled to fly into
Utah
on Tuesday afternoon.
Investigators do not know whether Kilmer’s sister or brother-in-law were aware that Kilmer had no legal custody of the child while the mother and daughter stayed with them in West Valley City, Phelps said.