Atlanta police are searching for two young sisters, 4-year-old Zola Cooper and 11-month-old Norah Cooper, who investigators believe were abducted by their babysitter and are now considered to be in extreme danger. The girls were last seen near the intersection of Jones Avenue Northwest and James P. Brawley Drive Northwest in West Atlanta, and police have listed them as critically missing.
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Department has identified the suspected babysitter as Lakeshia Brown and believes she may be traveling with the girls in a white Ford F-150 bearing an Alabama license plate. That out-of-state tag has turned what began as a neighborhood search into a potential multi-state pursuit, since the vehicle could easily have crossed into Alabama or beyond in the hours since the girls were last seen.
Zola is described as 3 feet 9 inches tall and weighing about 42 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a multicolored dress. Norah is about 2 feet tall and weighs approximately 28 pounds, also with black hair and brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a pink onesie. Police have noted that Norah is missing the index and middle fingers on her right hand, a detail that could help identify her.
A Neighborhood in the Middle of Change
The intersection where the girls were last seen sits in West Atlanta's English Avenue neighborhood, an area that has been the focus of long-term municipal revitalization efforts. Multi-million-dollar grants for placemaking and commercial rehabilitation have poured into the corridor in recent years, according to Urbanize Atlanta, part of a broader push by the city and community development groups to reshape the historic neighborhood.
Anyone with information on the sisters' whereabouts is asked to contact the Atlanta Police Department's Special Victims Unit at 404-546-4260, or to reach out anonymously through Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta offers cash rewards for tips that lead to an arrest or a child's safe recovery, a system designed to give witnesses a way to come forward without fear of exposure.
Why No Statewide Alert Has Been Issued
As of now, it remains an open question whether Georgia has formally activated a Levi's Call, the state's official child abduction alert system, given that the suspect vehicle is registered across the border in Alabama. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation explains that Levi's Call was created in memory of 11-year-old Levi Frady, who was abducted and murdered in Forsyth County in 1997 in a case that remains unsolved, and the program grew out of a partnership between law enforcement, emergency managers, and state broadcasters.
Only the Georgia Bureau of Investigation can activate a Levi's Call, and only at the request of local police who can show a confirmed abduction, a reasonable belief of imminent bodily harm or death, and actionable suspect or vehicle information. The threshold is intentionally strict, since alerts are withheld in non-custodial disputes or runaway cases to avoid public fatigue with the system. Georgia law also shields broadcasters that air these alerts from civil liability, so long as what they report stays consistent with the official state transmission, which is designed to encourage television, radio, and digital outlets to spread the details quickly once an alert is issued.
What the Numbers Say About Recovery
The stakes attached to a Levi's Call are underscored by the state's own track record. Of more than 180 Levi's Call alerts issued since the program began, over 95% ended in the safe recovery of the missing child, according to data reported by WSB-TV, though seven children had been found deceased out of 187 alerts issued as of late 2017. Nationally, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 32,167 missing children cases in 2025 and achieved a 90% resolution rate, though the organization notes that roughly 92% of those national reports involved runaway youth rather than abductions like the one Atlanta police are now investigating.
Under Georgia law, the alleged abduction could carry serious criminal exposure for whoever is responsible. Georgia Code § 16-5-40 defines felony kidnapping as unlawfully abducting and holding a person against their will, and the statute carries mandatory prison terms; even slight movement of a victim can satisfy the legal requirement if it isolates them or helps conceal the crime, following 2009 amendments that clarified how that movement, known as asportation, applies. Federal reporting rules also require agencies to log missing child cases with the National Crime Information Center and notify the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children within 24 hours of confirmation, part of a broader framework meant to keep local departments, federal databases, and national clearinghouses in sync as the search for Zola and Norah continues.
