Missing Minneapolis Toddler Found Safe In New York State

MINNEAPOLIS – A child reported missing Monday who police say was abducted by her older sister has been found safe in New York State.

Nastesha Mohamed, 2, was last seen just before 3 p.m. Sunday in the 1400 block of Marshall Street NE. According to officials, the case fell short of the Amber Alert threshold, but Minneapolis officials were able to send out information about the child and her sister to nearby authorities.

In a news conference held Tuesday at 11 a.m., officials said the New York State Thruway Police conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle around 10 a.m. CT. New York officials stopped the car because they recognized from the alert that came from Minneapolis officials. Amina Mohamed, 26, and the child were in the vehicle, which had been described as a gold 2013 Chevrolet Equinox.

Amina Mohamed is now in police custody. The child is now in protective custody and will be reunited with her parents, who officials said were "very concerned but very relieved."

Speaking at the news conference, Minneapolis Police public information officer John Elder said no charges have been filed yet.

"Our folks are working with the county attorney's office to determine what charges they'd be comfortable pursuing," he said.

According to police, Amina Mohamed suffers from mental health issues.

"She has had some challenges with mental instability and bouts of paranoia and for that reason and some erratic behaviors we had every reason to believe that child was in danger," he said.

Elder said police received information suggesting that Amina Mohamed may have been traveling to Massachusetts to attend a lecture at a college. He said he is not aware of whether officials have questioned Mohammed yet about her motivation.

"We are exceptionally grateful to everybody who played a part in this," Elder said. "Very honestly we did not know where that child was and some of the more conventional investigative techniques were not panning out. Our most sincere thanks to everybody for us having as good of an outcome to this as humanly possible."