Abducted children taken from grandmother’s home found safe. Arizona parents arrested

Three Arizona children who were taken from their grandmother’s home by their parents were found after an eight-day search, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said.

The children were temporarily in their grandmother’s custody and were staying at her home in Paulden “because the Courts determined the three juveniles were at risk due to the parents’ drug use and history of neglect,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

The Department of Child Services was also involved in the children’s care, the post said.

The children’s father, Ryan Nicholas Mullin, reportedly called the children’s grandparents on Dec. 7, saying he was coming to get the children and that he “would kill them if they tried getting in the way,” the sheriff office’s post said.

When Mullin and the children’s mother, Ashlee Lynne Waldie, arrived at the house, the grandmother “could only watch” as the couple drove away with the children, the post said. Police were dispatched to the house after a Child Services worker reported that the children had been taken, the sheriff’s office said in the post.

Police soon obtained arrest warrants for Mullin and Waldie, and authorities located the couple eight days later in Apache Junction, about 154 miles away.

Apache Junction is 50 miles east of Phoenix.

The couple was booked into the Yavapai County Jail and charged with abduction of a child from state custody, the sheriff’s office said.

Mullin was found with a gun and may also face charges for weapon crimes, the post said. The children were evaluated by EMTs before being turned over to the Department of Child Services.

This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Abducted children taken from grandmother’s home found safe. Arizona parents arrested."