WEST JORDAN, Utah, Jan. 23, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A West Jordan girl who was recovered safe shortly after an Amber Alert was issued for her Monday had been taken without permission by her grandfather’s live-in girlfriend, West Jordan Police said at a news conference.
Officer Alondra Zavala, WJPD, told reporters possible kidnapping charges are being screened for the suspect, identified in the Amber Alert text as 56-year-old Bernice Quintana.
Quintana lives at the residence of the 7-year-old girl and her grandfather. Zavala said the suspect reportedly had been in a domestic relationship with the grandfather for a few months.
Zavala said the girl’s grandmother called after being alerted by the grandfather that Quintana had been acting erratically over recent weeks, and had taken the child from the residence after being specifically told not to do so.
The grandmother called police at 10:40 a.m., Zavala said.
The child “does live there with her grandfather, who is her primary guardian,” the officer said, adding the child’s grandfather said “the juvenile had been taken from the location by his domestic partner, which was his girlfriend who lived at the residence with her. So all three currently lived at that address.”
Zavala said “We ultimately determined that an Amber Alert needed to be sent because we have no idea of where she was at the moment based on what the grandfather had mentioned was the suspect had been acting strange over the last month, and then due to the incident that occurred that morning where she again was acting strange and took the child, and the grandfather told her she was not able to take the juvenile.”
Zavala said when suspect Quintana learned of the Amber Alert, she took the little girl to the closest police station, which was the South Salt Lake Police Department. The girl had suffered no known physical injuries, Zavala said.
“We have already verified that she’s OK. She has no injury. She’s unharmed. She’s been actually returned back with her grandfather. And they’re currently doing the investigation to determine if anything occurred during that time when she was not with him.”
Quintana was being interviewed by detectives as of 3:30 p.m., Zavala said. Quintana has a “history of some type of drug abuse from the past and a criminal history,” Zavala said.
“Potential charges as of this moment — we’re looking at kidnapping,” the officer said. “We’re going to send all the facts, when we are finished with the interview, to the D.A.’s Office, and they’ll essentially determine the future charges.”
Zavala said the suspect’s phone was reportedly turned off when she left the residence, “and she did not have any kind of communication with anyone either at the police department or with family” before driving to the SSLPD station with the child.
Officers are still collecting details, Zavala said, “but our top priority was the safety of the child.”
