A St. Louis County woman has been arrested and charged with kidnapping her two-year-old son, despite not having custody and being ordered to have no contact with him, according to authorities. Aarin Stiles, 29, allegedly took the toddler from the North County Recreational Center on Redman Road and did not return him to his father, who has sole custody.
The child, who requires daily medication, was reported missing by his father, according to a KSDK report. Joe Pepito, a former neighbor, stating to KSDK, "At the end of the day, I just wasn't expecting, so it's shocking."
Furthermore, Stiles has a prior charge for property damage and a history of child endangerment, which resulted in a no-contact order with her son. As reported by First Alert 4, she also has a warrant for failing to comply with bond conditions from that case.
The child was found and returned to his father after having been missing for four days. Stiles faces a charge of parental kidnapping and is being held a on a $250,000 cash-only bond, as reported by FOX2now. Despite the allegations, Pepito recalled Stiles as someone who said, "She would always seem unassuming, which is why like I said, I never assumed she was even doing anything what they're accusing her of," in their apartment complex. "She would always come outside in a motorized scooter that had a basket," Pepito said in a statement obtained by KSDK. "That's why we have a ramp outside our building — that was made for her. She always had her son in the basket. I never saw anything out of the ordinary and the boy never really said anything to me."
