An Amber Alert was canceled after a 5-year-old girl from Marion County, who was missing for about four days, was found safe in a small Missouri city more than 1,000 miles away from home.
At about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, police found Alexandria Green at the Harbor Haus Inn and Suites hotel in Hermann, Missouri, with her father, Alan Green, 55, and mother, Mechealine Mazakis, 47. Hermann Police Chief Marlon Walker said both parents were immediately taken into custody.
Walker said Hermann Police was able to locate Green and her parents after the Marion County Sheriff’s Office contacted them to say a cell phone related to the case was pinged in the area of the hotel. Walker said when police arrived at the hotel at about 6:30 p.m., they found a car matching a description given by MSCO and eventually saw the missing child walk out of the hotel with her mother. They found her father sitting on a porch outside of their hotel room.
Alan Green was arrested on-site based on a Marion County warrant for interference with child custody, according to an MCSO Facebook post. No charges are currently being filed against Mazakis.
“No one was hurt, and we were able to get that little girl,” Walker said. “She was in pretty good spirits.”
According to an MCSO press release, Green was last seen before her disappearance at the home of her grandparents, who have custody of her, on Saturdayin Dunnellon, Florida. That morning, Green was having a court-allowed unsupervised visit with her father.
When Green’s grandparents noticed she was missing, they contacted the MCSO police, spokesperson Lauren Lettelier said.
About three days after her disappearance, at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, MCSO issued an Amber Alert due to the erratic behavior from both parents and Alan Green’s apparent history of mental illness, according to the release.
About three hours after the alert was issued, at about 7 p.m., the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sent out an email indicating the 5-year-old’s safety.
“It’s a tremendous relief,” Lettelier, who has worked with MCSO for three years, said. “This is the first (Amber Alert) that we’ve had in Marion County since I’ve been here. We are very thankful to the Hermann Police Department.”
As of press time, Alexandria has been placed under the care of a foster parent by Missouri’s Family Service Division, where she will stay until her grandparents fly to St. Louis to get her back, Walker said.
As of Wednesday morning, Alan Green is being held in Crawford County Sheriff’s Department in Missouri in lieu of a $5,000 bond. He is waiting to be transported back to Florida where he will face charges, Walker said.
