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Amber Alert Caldwell, Idaho: Three Kids Abducted By Mom And Accused Child Molester Found Safe

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 13:30 PST, Jun 18, 2016

An Amber Alert out of Caldwell, Idaho, has been cancelled as of Saturday with a wonderful outcome: the three children being sought by authorities were found safe in Colorado. Caldwell, Idaho, police say that the kids were found near Frisco, Colorado, which is roughly 25 miles away from the resort town of Vail. According to local Caldwell authorities, the Amber Alert was called off after Colorado State Police located the vehicle and suspects being sought.

The Caldwell, Idaho, Amber Alert was issued last week, almost two weeks after the children went missing, reports KTVB 7. Two of the children were in the custody of their mother and her accused sex offender boyfriend; the third child involved in the Caldwell, Idaho, Amber Alert was the biological child of the boyfriend being sought by police.

According to police, the pair who fled Caldwell with the three children were Jason “Travis” Simon and Sarah Joy VanOcker-Dunn. Both suspects are now in police custody, and the three children, Lewis Dunn, Kaylee Dunn, and Kaydn Simon, are currently in the custody of Colorado’s Department of Human Services, where they will remain until they are retrieved by their legal guardians.

The Caldwell, Idaho, Amber Alert was issued on Monday, June 13, after an arrest warrant was issued for Sarah Joy VanOcker-Dunn. The charge was custodial interference, and it came after she had deprived her children’s biological father of his children for almost two weeks. The kids, ages 9 and 10, had allegedly been the victims of sexual molestation at the hands of Travis Simon, their mother’s new boyfriend, prior to the pair allegedly snatching them away.

Because of the nature of the allegations against Simon and the amount of time the children had been missing, Idaho authorities decided to issue an Amber Alert in an attempt to bring them home safely. Because they were presumed to be in the custody of their mother (who had no legal right to disappear with them) and the man who had been accused of sexually molesting them, they were considered endangered. The Amber Alert was officially issued out of Boise, Idaho.

Prior to locating the couple and three missing children due to the effectiveness of the Amber Alert, authorities had also issued an arrest warrant for Travis Simon. His charges were pertaining to suspicion of producing child pornography, reports KBOI, something that had been brought to the attention of local law enforcement when a concerned tipster filed a report with police. It is unknown if the children involved in the Caldwell, Idaho, Amber Alert were involved in the alleged child porn, but authorities were very concerned for their physical and psychological well-being during their disappearance.

Before the Amber Alert was issued, the couple and three children hadn’t been seen since June 2. They had last been spotted in Emmett either purchasing or borrowing camping equipment. According to the Caldwell, Idaho, Amber Alert, the group were spotted again in Arcadia, California, and on June 12 in Sparks, Nevada

Per the Amber Alert, prior to locating the group, authorities believed that they have been in the Sweet, Ola, or Valley County areas.

Caldwell police are heading to Colorado to retrieve the suspects and transport them back to Idaho to face the music for the abductions in the next few days.

Jesse Dunn, father and legal guardian of two of the children, reportedly hopped a flight to Colorado at around 4:00 p.m. local time to get his kids.

“No parent should ever have to go through what I’ve gone through the past 16 days.”

According to law enforcement, all three of the children involved in the Caldwell, Idaho, Amber Alert are safe and sound and have no “apparent” physical injuries as a result of their time on the run with the suspects.

[Photo by Idaho State Police/KOLO8/Twitter]

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