Missing 2019 girl found alive under stairs 0:34
(CNN) --
A girl who was reported missing in 2019 when she was 4 years old was found hiding under a wooden staircase with her mother, who does not have legal custody of her, in a home that officials had visited multiple times while investigating her death. disappearance, authorities said.
The girl, Paislee Joann Shultis, now 6 years old, was reported missing on July 13, 2019 in Cayuga Heights, a town outside of Ithaca, New York.
At the time, she is believed to have been abducted by her parents, who do not have legal custody of her, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis Jr., police said in a news release.
Paislee and her mother were found Monday when investigators spotted "a tiny pair of feet" in a secret space under wooden steps leading to a basement.
"We should all wait until the facts come out," said Carol K. Morgan, who represents Cooper.
"Everyone should be patient before drawing their own conclusions."
In the basement of the home, detectives searching for the girl found an apartment, including a room with Paislee's name written on the wall, Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra told CNN on Wednesday.
The bed was not made.
"Our agents asked, 'Is she here?' ... And they denied that anyone was living in that house, in that particular room," the chief said in an interview.
"They said they had set up the room like this in case Paislee ever came back."
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Paislee Joann Shultis in a photo released by the Saugerties Police Department.
Throughout the two-and-a-half-year investigation, authorities received several leads about the Saugerties-area home where the girl was eventually located, but each time residents denied knowing anything about the girl's whereabouts, according to the statement.
Saugerties is about 165 miles east of Cayuga Heights.
"The quick answer: That's our criminal justice system," Sinagra said of her department's inability to find the girl sooner, adding that Monday was the first time officers were able to get factual information, not hearsay. , and secure a search warrant.
Sinagra said the homeowners were always "antagonistic" to the officers, accusing police of "harassing" and "important" them and "insisting that we should be looking for Paislee."
Sinagra told CNN Wednesday that officers had previously been to the home about a dozen times but were not allowed into the basement or bedroom areas.
"We are bothered by the fact that this has gone on for two years," the chief said.
"They have lied to us for two years, even the father stated that he had no idea where his daughter was."
Investigators were allowed to enter the home without a warrant on several occasions, but Kirk Shultis Jr. and Kirk Shultis Sr. were given "limited access," police said in the news release.
That changed on Monday, when police received information that the girl was in hiding and obtained a warrant for the house.
The agents arrived outside the house around 4 in the afternoon to make sure that no one left.
Police executed the warrant shortly after 8 pm, the chief said.
The owner of the house denied knowing the whereabouts of the girl, saying that he had not seen her since she was reported missing in 2019.
Police said the secret spot under the basement stairs appeared to have been built to hide the girl.
Something peculiar on a staircase
After an hour of searching, a detective noticed that the steps leading to the basement were oddly shaped.
Detective Erik Thiele shined a flashlight through a crack in the wooden steps and saw what appeared to be a blanket, according to the release.
As the agents began to dismantle the ladder, Sinagra said the silence was eerie.
"The girl didn't make a sound. Kimberly never made a sound," Sinagra said.
"The question that needs to be answered is what did her parents tell her to make her stay so still and quiet while the policemen went up and down the steps, while they dismantled the steps," Sinagra added.
Investigators removed several of the steps, the statement added, and "that's when detectives saw a pair of tiny feet."
A door in Paislee's basement room opened onto a short hallway that led directly to the secret compartment under the stairs, about three feet away, Sinagra said.
"The girl and her abductor, Kimberly Cooper, were found hiding in the dark and damp room," the police statement said.
Authorities believe Cooper and the girl had been staying at the house since they disappeared in 2019, Sinagra said, adding that the staircase appeared to have been built to hide them.
"It's our opinion ... that, that location was used probably every single time that we sent an officer to the residence," Sinagra said.
Police arrested Cooper and Shultis Jr., the girl's biological parents, as well as Shultis Sr., according to the release.
Cooper was charged with two misdemeanors — Custodial Interference in the Second Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child — and remains in jail due to a prior arrest warrant issued through family court, according to police.
Kirk Shultis Jr. and Kirk Shultis Sr. were charged with Custodial Interference in the First Degree, a felony, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a misdemeanor.
Both were processed and released at their own risk, police said.
The court ordered the three defendants to stay away from the girl.
Cooper, who posted bail, and the two men appeared in court Wednesday.
The men's cases were deferred until the end of this month.
His attorneys declined to comment.
Cooper will appear in court again on March 2.
The girl was in good health and was released to her legal guardian and reunited with her older sister, according to police.
On Tuesday, "detectives met with the family that has the girl, and she was in good spirits," the chief said.
Father of missing 7-year-old girl arrested in US
One last stop: McDonald's
The girl was "disturbed and worried" when police rescued her, Sinagra said.
"That leads us to wonder what they told the girl about the police and, you know, why would the police come and take her away," Sinagra said.
"That's what worries me. (...) And I'm sure that when she saw several of our agents, who were heavily armed (...) that was something traumatic for the girl."
Before handing her over to her legal guardian, detectives took the girl to the police station, in part so doctors could examine her.
While driving, the girl saw a McDonald's and remembered eating something from there a long time ago, the chief said.
"So the detectives turned the car around and went to McDonald's drive-thru, bought her a Happy Meal and took her back to the station. And after that, she was fine," the chief added.
Police reported that an investigation is underway.
"We don't know what Paislee lived through (during) the last two years," Sinagra said.
"And we don't know what kind of damage may have been done because of the conditions he had to live in."
-- Jessica Prater and Kiely Westhoff contributed reporting.
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