Two children reported missing out of Tennessee and Kentucky have been found safe in Dana Point, and a suspect in the case is in custody, authorities announced Thursday.
Noah Clare, 3, and Amber Clare, 16, were located less than a day after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations released new surveillance images that they said confirmed both kids were with 35-year-old Jacob Clare. He’s the father of Noah and Amber’s uncle.
The children were recovered after a concerned woman spotted a boy matching the toddler’s description and reporting the sighting to law enforcement, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Clare was also taken into custody by deputies.
The tip that led to the recovery and apprehension was provided by Julia Bonin, who believed she spotted the man and two children that investigators in multiple states were searching for while she was driving her child to school in Dana Point Thursday morning.
Initially, Bonin didn’t trust her instincts and continued on to the her son’s school, where she dropped him off. She was supposed to go into school to volunteer, but instead decided to drive back.
She ended up snapping a photo of the trio, which she passed on to the Sheriff’s Department. Deputies responded to scene and confirmed it was the missing toddler, his teenage cousin and the boy’s father.
“I couldn’t stop shaking and tearing up, that was … I just wanted to go hug them,” Bonin said of the children. “I didn’t because, I mean, some strange lady running across just saying, you know, ‘We did it.’ But I just, I was thankful and just grateful that I followed my instinct.”
Prior to Thursday morning, the two children were last seen on Nov. 6, when Noah was allegedly taken in Gallatin, Tennessee, and Amber left her home in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, according to the TBI.
The Tennessee agency issued an Amber Alert specifically for Noah on Tuesday as they upgraded the incident to a case of potential aggravated kidnapping. Because Amber was missing out of Kentucky, the agency said it had no jurisdiction to issue the same alert for her as well.
The same day the Amber Alert was issued, the vehicle associated with the case — a Subaru Legacy — was found abandoned in San Clemente.
As a result of the discovery, the California Highway Patrol sent out an endangered missing advisory for the children that covered Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Noah Clare was reunited with his mother in Orange County on Thursday night.
Jacob Clare is expected to be arraigned on Friday on kidnapping charges.
No further information was immediately released.
