Two children from Redmond, Washington, who vanished in December 2023 have been found safe in Virginia and returned to their father, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. The children had been missing for nearly three years before a multi-state investigation traced them to the greater Washington, D.C., area.
The case broke open after the Redmond Police Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children formally asked the U.S. Marshals Service for federal help in August 2026, according to a U.S. Marshals Service press release. That request set off an investigation that ultimately located the children in Virginia on September 16, as reported by KOIN.com.
Federal investigators say the children's mother took them after losing custody and concealed their names in an attempt to evade law enforcement, per the same U.S. Marshals Service account. The agency has not detailed what specific investigative breakthroughs in August led the search to the D.C. region after nearly three years, and it remains unclear whether formal charges have been filed against the mother in Washington or federal court.
A Three-State Manhunt Involving Multiple Agencies
The search spanned three states and drew in several law-enforcement partners. The cross-country effort involved the U.S. Marshals Service Missing Child Unit, the U.S. Marshals Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, the Baltimore County Police Department in Maryland, and the Arlington Police Department in Virginia, the marshals service said. Once agents pinpointed the children's location, they were recovered and returned safely to their father on September 16.
The Federal Law Behind the Rescue
The Marshals Service's ability to step into a local, non-fugitive missing-child case like this one traces back to a specific federal statute. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 expanded the agency's authority to assist local police in recovering endangered missing children.
That authority has added up over time. Figures published by the U.S. Marshals Service show the agency has helped locate or recover 5,281 missing children nationwide since the 2015 law took effect, through this September.
What Washington Law Says About Taking a Child Across State Lines
Under Washington Revised Code 9A.40.060, a parent who intentionally hides a child from someone with lawful physical custody and removes that child from the state commits first-degree custodial interference, a Class C felony.
Washington law also builds in a financial consequence for cases like this one. Revised Code 9A.40.080 requires anyone convicted of first- or second-degree custodial interference to pay all reasonable expenses that law enforcement and victims incur while locating and returning the child, a provision that matters given how much coordination a three-state, multi-agency search can require.
Family Abductions Are More Common Than Stranger Danger
Cases like the Redmond siblings' disappearance fit a broader national pattern. Reports from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children indicate the organization assisted with 32,167 missing child cases across the country in 2025 alone. Separate NCMEC data shows family abductions made up only about 4.1% of all missing child cases the organization handled in 2023, yet accounted for 59% of all AMBER Alerts issued that year.
That imbalance reflects where the real risk to children tends to come from. According to reporting from the FBI, non-family abductions by strangers make up less than 1% of all missing children reports annually, while the vast majority of non-runaway abductions involve family members or people the child already knows.
