Boy missing for 7 years finally found as his mother, her husband are arrested for kidnapping
A Georgia boy who went missing seven years ago was found in Colorado, with his mother and her new husband arrested on kidnapping charges, police said.
Abdul Aziz Khan, now 14, vanished from his Atlanta home on Nov. 27, 2017, with his mother, Rabia Khalid, 40, accused of being behind the disappearance after failing to show up for a custody hearing that same day.
The case, which was covered in Netflixās āUnsolved Mysteries,ā was cracked last week when deputies were called in to investigate an alleged burglary in progress in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, according to the Douglas County Sheriffās Office.
The cops arrived at the property on Feb. 23, at around 3:37 p.m., where they spotted two people inside a home listed for sale after getting a call from the homeowner who caught the break in on his security camera.
The two suspects, Khalid and her husband Elliot Blake Bourgeois, 42, claimed to be employees associated with the realtors of the property, but the deputies quickly found holes in their stories and began probing for their identities.
The officers also found two children inside a vehicle parked in the driveway, with detectives then identifying the teenager in the car as the missing Aziz.
āOur deputies responded to what initially seemed like a routine trespass call, but through sharp attention to detail and tenacity, they uncovered the truth,ā Sheriff Darren Weekly said in a statement.
āTheir ability to recognize the discrepancies in the suspectsā story and to follow the leads, even when the situation seemed unclear, ultimately led to the safe recovery of a child who had been missing for seven long years,ā he added.
Azizās family said they were overjoyed at the recent discovery following years of torment when US Marshals Service agents informed them that Khalid and Bourgeois kidnapped the boy.
āWeāre overwhelmed with joy that Aziz has finally been found. We want to thank everyone for their support over the last seven years,ā the family said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also hailed the deputiesā ākeen instinctsā for helping reunite Aziz and his family.
Aziz and the other child, who was not publicly identified, were taken into protective custody, with a court set to decide where they will be placed.
Khalid and Bourgeois were booked in the Douglas County Jail and charged with kidnapping, forgery, identity theft, providing false information to authorities, and trespassing.
Both their bonds were set at $1 million.
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