In a significant turn of events following a statewide Amber Alert, two young girls from Hanford, California, have been reported safe after their alleged abduction by their father, with the suspect now in custody, according to the Kings County Sheriff's Office. As detailed in a Times of San Diego article, the two children, Arya Maldonado, age 3, and Alana Maldonado, age 2, were feared to have been taken by Jonathan Alexis Maldonado-Cruz, 23, who is also suspected of shooting the children's mother, Madeline Rose Cuevas, 22, in Hanford.

The suspect's apprehension and the children's discovery came after a collaborative effort involving state and federal law enforcement partners. The coordination was elaborated by CBS San Francisco, which expressed gratitude to the community for its role in the case's quick development. The sheriff's office did not reveal the arrest location nor where the girls were found, but they did confirm that Jonathan Maldonado-Cruz is now in custody. The California Highway Patrol announced the deactivation of the Amber Alert and confirmed the girls' safety in a subsequent post.

The original Amber Alert was issued after deputies, responding to a welfare check on Tuesday at a residence on the 11500 block of Fourth Place in Hanford, discovered Cuevas deceased from a gunshot wound, as reported by Hoodline. Maldonado-Cruz had left the scene with his daughters on Tuesday morning, which set off the multi-county alert that spanned from San Diego to Kings County, with authorities briefly fearing the suspect might attempt to flee to Mexico.