Atlanta police rescued four-year-old Zola Cooper and her 11-month-old sister, Norah, from a sweltering trailer on Monday. The children had been allegedly abducted by their babysitter, Lakesha Brown, who now faces multiple felony charges.
The 97-degree trailer and the rescue of Zola and Norah
The reescue operation unfolded on Monday around 12:30 p.m. after the Atlanta Police Department tracked a cellphone ping to a trailer in a parking lot. According to the Atlanta Police Department,officers heard a child crying inside the structure, which was sitting under the intense Georgia sun. body camera footage reveals the urgency of the situation, showing officers using a cinder block and bolt cutters to breach the locked exterior.
Once inside, officers found Zola Cooper and her infant sister in conditions described in an arrest warrant as "unclean and unsuitable." The Atlanta Police Department reported that temperatures inside the trailer had reached a sweltering 97°F. The two girls were passed between armed officers to safety and were later reunited with their mother, Elicia Redding, in good health.
Lakesha Brown's kidnapping charges and the Fulton County booking
Lakesha Brown, 42, was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Monday following the rescue. As reported by the Atlanta Police Department, Brown has been charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children. The charges stem from an incident that began Saturday at 6 p.m., when Elicia Redding first hired Brown to watch her daughters.
The crisis escalated when Brown failed to return the children by the agreed-upon time of 10 p.m. on Sunday.. Elicia Redding reported the girls missing at 10:30 p.m. that evening, triggering an Amber Alert and a massive search operation by the Atlanta Police Department to locate the four-year-old and the 11-month-old.
The 2021 abduction of newborn Kamarion Taylor in Alabama
The current charges against Lakesha Brown appear to be part of a recurring predatory pattern. According to records reviewed by WSBTV and FOX 5, Brown has an outstanding warrant in Jefferson County, Alabama , related to the 2021 kidnapping of a four-day-old newborn named Kamarion Taylor. in that instance, Brown had allegedly agreed to help the infant's mother, Brionna Washington, with childcare before disappearing with the baby while Washington slept.
While Kamarion Taylor was eventually recovered safely by police, the legal process stalled. Prosecutors noted that Lakesha Brown pleaded not guilty in the Alabama case but failed to appear in court for her scheduled trial in May, allowing her to remain at large and eventually find employment as a babysitter in Georgia.
Burn barrels and the missing infant in Paulding County
Further complicating the suspect's history is a second outstanding warrant in Paulding County,Georgia. Last year, Lakesha Brown was accused of obstructing a police investigation and lying to detectives during a welfare check on a baby she had allegedly given birth to. Court documents reviewed by FOX 5 indicate that the father of the missing child reported a photo of the infant looked as though the baby "did not look alive."
During a search of the residence, a sheriff's deputy discovered two burn barrels in the yard , one of which was surrounded by maggots and burned material. While the police report does not explicitly confirm if Lakesha Brown gave birth or if the burn barrels were linked to the missing child, the presence of newborn diapers that disappeared between police visits added to the suspicion surrounding the Paulding County investigation.
The missing link between the Paulding County barrels and the missing child
Despite the harrowing details, several critical questions remain unanswered. Most notably, the fate of the infant in the Paulding County case has not been officially confirmed, and it remains unclear why Lakesha Brown was able to operate as a childcare provider in Atlanta despite active warrants in two different states. The source reporting focuses on the police findings but does not include a statement from Lakesha Brown's legal representation regarding these multi-state allegations.
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