Children found safe in drug house; mom, male friend taken into custody

HARRISON COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) - It was a tense search overnight to catch an East Texas woman who authorities say kidnapped children to possibly sell them.

Authorities say two of the children were her own.

That search ended when Harrison County law officers arrested 23-year-old Lindsey Mariah Kelley, after a nearly six hour search for her and three children.

Investigators say it was at a home on Appaloosa Lane near Hallsville that Kelley arrived to visit. Then she promptly disappeared, taking the three children with her.

“The children currently live with the grandparents. I guess they were trying to do like anyone else and have a family day. She took the kids while everybody was kind of distracted; they were in the backyard and the kids had gone in to go to bed. When they realized she was gone they immediately called authorities,” said Harrison County Sheriff Brandon Fletcher.

Around 10:30 p.m., Kelley’s father called police on the kidnapping of a 4-year-old child from that home.

The father told the sheriff that Kelley had a drug problem, and there was something else.

“In the past she had made the reference, a statement that she would ‘offer the children’. The father took that to mean as to sell them type deal,” Fletcher said.

All neighboring agencies were notified of the child kidnapping and the sheriff was about to put out an Amber Alert, when he got some important information.

“We ended up going to eight different locations. It was the information on the phone pings we were doing on her phone. We were able to locate her. Every minute that goes by, the possiblity goes down further and further that you’re going to find them,” the sheriff said.

Kelley was taken into custody and the children recovered unharmed. Longview police assisted Harrison County in the incident.

“The children were all safe and sound, but there were some narcotics and some needles in the room with the children. We’re always stronger in numbers and I was glad to see it come out the way it did,” Fletcher said.

The children were found at a home in Longview, about eleven miles from where they disappeared. They were returned to the home they were kidnapped from.

Lindsey Kelley remains jailed in Harrison County charged with kidnapping.

Officials tell us a man is currently under investigation in connection with the case for child endangerment.

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