Missing area girl named in Amber Alert safe;
suspect, 16, in custody

BELLMEAD, TX  –  An 11-year-old Bellmead girl who was the focus of an Amber Alert early Monday morning is safe and the 16-year-old girl with whom she was found is in custody and facing a kidnapping charge.

Katelynn Maldonado was reported missing at around 1:30 a.m. Monday from her family’s home.

Bellmead police issued the alert, identifying the suspect as a 16-year-old Crawford girl who had stolen her grandmother’s 2012 Kia Sorento and had picked up Maldonado “sometime in the middle of the night.”

The two girls know each other through social media and have met once in person at a social event, Bellmead police Lt. Kory Martin said Monday.

The Kia in which the two girls were riding was spotted at around 7:30 a.m. and officers found the two in the 4400 block of Michigan Street, near the 11-year-old girl’s home, Martin said.

Maldonado was reunited with her parents and the 16-year-old was taken to the Bill Logue Juvenile Justice Center, facing kidnapping and unauthorized use of a vehicle charges, Martin said.

The girl’s father, Kasey Maldonado, says another of his daughters woke him up early Monday to tell him Katelynn was gone.

“We were just scared to death,” he said.

Katelynn was at home resting late Monday, he said.

She wasn’t hurt, but is “just very, very upset,” he said.