‘Mommy tricked the lady’: Parent who took off with 5-year-old during supervised visit charged

SEATTLE — The 5-year-old daughter whom prosecutors say was abducted by her mother during a supervised visit, was recorded by an officer’s body camera saying that her mother lied and tricked the visit supervisor so she could run away with the child.

On Monday, Sky Sanchez’s mother, 30-year-old Kiana Sanchez, was charged with first-degree custodial interference. The child’s father, Demetre Wilkins, has custody of Sky, and Sanchez was only allowed to have supervised visits at a child visitation facility.

On Oct. 9, Sanchez ran out of Seattle child visitation facility At Indaba with Sky under the ruse of wanting to get some water from a fountain, court documents say. The visit supervisor ran after the mother and daughter, but they had disappeared into a courtyard.

Seattle police tried to track Sanchez through her phones, but both had been turned off.

After Sky’s disappearance, numerous tips were received from people online, private investigators and family members. Locations of reported sightings ranged from Seattle to Sacramento to Las Vegas.

Three days later, following long telephone negotiations with Kiana Sanchez’s family, Sanchez turned herself in to police and was arrested, according to prosecutors.

The child was handed over to police by Sanchez’s brother, unharmed.

Charging documents said that after her arrest, Sanchez told police she had been protecting Sky because of abuse that occurred in 2018, but that she had no proof.

After Sky was brought to police, a Seattle detective stayed with her while she waited for her father to pick her up at the police station. When he arrived, Sky hugged him.

According to court documents, while sitting in Wilkins’ lap, Sky made the unprompted statement that was recorded by a body-worn camera:

“Mommy tricked the lady. And mommy and my mom said, ‘can we have some water.’ And she tricked them … mommy just lie … I saw mommy do it. I saw mommy say ‘can we have some waters please.’ I said, ‘no’ momma’ and he goes downstairs, now my momma’s run.”

According to charging documents, Sanchez and Wilkins dated from 2016 to 2017 and at first had verbal agreements about their child’s custody, but after arguments over visitation began, a parenting plan was put in place through the court on Oct. 25, 2019.

At that time, Sanchez had custody of Sky. After Sanchez denied Wilkins visitation on multiple occasions and disappeared with the child when she moved in January 2022, Wilkins was awarded custody of Sky in March.

The parenting plan in King County Superior Court specified that the “supervisor shall take extra precautions to ensure that the mother is not able to flee with the child.”

Because Sanchez “has a long history of interfering with the court-ordered parenting plan,” prosecutors requested that her bail be set at $50,000. If bail is posted, prosecutors requested that the child’s father be notified, and Kiana Sanchez be on electronic home monitoring with GPS.

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