California Girl Amber Nicklas found Alive after 7 years

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Renata Alves

16 July, 2010

A CALIFORNIA girl shamelessly snatched by her teenage aunts seven years ago has been found alive after 7 years of wait, but a complicated mess of conflicting stories and sealed court records have so far led to no arrests in the case.

The victim Amber Nicklas was found hundreds of miles away from her hometown in California. Amber Nicklas disappeared without any hint from a Los Angeles restaurant in 2003 when she was just 13 months old. She was finally tracked down to a psychic's house with a couple in Phoenix, Arizona - 371 miles from Los Angeles - on Wednesday afternoon.

Police said a woman tried to hide the girl under a pile of towels in the bathroom shower as they searched the house under a court order. At first, she tried to claim she adopted the girl, but couldn't provide any paperwork to prove their story." 'The child seemed well cared for. She appeared well-nourished," said Capt. Patrick Maxwell of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Norwalk station. "She was not enrolled in school, though."

Amber was kidnapped on Sept. 21, 2003, from a Norwalk Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant by her mother's three teenage sisters during an approved visitation. Two of the teens were caught almost immediately and arrested. The third aunt, 13 years old at the time, escaped with the baby .

Detectives received information last November suggesting the girl was living in Arizona. Footprints, photographs and DNA swabs were taken to confirm her identity. Amber was returned to California today where she was in the care of Child Protective Services. How the 7-year-old girl came to be living in Phoenix is still not clear, but the little girl's unstable life has been a sad one from starting of her life.