A Pierceton woman has been booked into the Kosciusko County Jail, accused of attempted kidnapping of her two children.
According to court documents, on Dec. 2, 2016, Indiana Child Protective Services removed two minor children from a home and placed them in foster care, because the children failed a drug test.
On Dec. 14, 2016, a CPS caseworker and Warsaw Police Department officer went to the home of the children’s mother, Angela Dawn Adams, 39, in Pierceton. The purpose of the home visit was to check on the children’s safety. During the visit, the officer observed prescription medication out in the open where the children could access it.
On Dec. 15, 2016, the officer obtained possession of three of Adams cell phones and obtained consent to retrieve information from the phones.
On Jan. 1, the foster parents watching the Adams’s children found an email on one of the children’s laptop that stated, “I tried to escape last night with (Angela Adams) in a vehicle and drive away.”
The next day, the officer and a different CPS caseworker met with the foster parents who told the pair the CPS caseworker that conducted the last home visit had taken the children for visitation with a family friend and provided the transportation. During the visitation, one of the children obtained a cell phone.
The foster parents further advised that during the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 2016, they found one of the children had packed a backpack with a laptop and a stuffed animal they found stored in their garage. They believed this was a plan for the child to run away. The foster parents also noticed a vehicle drive past their residence very slowly around the same time.
The foster parents provided the cell phone the child had brought home and the laptop computer.
Officers obtained a search warrant for the laptop and found the email that had been sent on Jan. 1, stating the child was running away from the home. The cell phone officers received from the foster parents was one of the same phones officers had retried earlier from Adams. Officers also found the last phone call placed on the phone was to another one of the phones Adams had provided to officers.
Police interviewed Adams on Jan. 3 and told police her friend “probably” gave the child the cell phone during the visitation on Dec. 30, 2016.
Adams was questioned as to who driving past the foster parents’ home and Adams responded, “You’re going to search my phone, find out for yourself.” At which point her cell phone was confiscated by police.
The CPS caseworker that took the children to the visitation was interviewed by police and admitted to texting and having phone conversations with Adams on both her work and personal cell phones. She also advised the home visit she arranged with the family friend was not authorized by CPS. She told police the visit lasted for two hours and she did not stop it when the children’s mother arrived unannounced with two other adult individuals.
Officers obtained a search warrant for Adams cell phone and found over 250 text messages between Adams and the CPS caseworker’s personal cell phone. Police also found 17 phone calls from Adams phone to the phone her child had in it’s possession on Dec. 31, 2016.
Adams was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on Saturday, Jan. 6 on two charges of felony attempted kidnapping. Her bond was set at $10,250.
