A kidnapped toddler was rescued by a crew of movers, who worked together to save the child when one of them recognized her from an Amber Alert.
Employees of Camelback Moving Inc. had pulled into a QuikTrip near 27th Avenue and Thomas Road during a workday break when events began to unfold.
Kevin Place stepped inside the store to buy water. While waiting, he overheard a security guard urgently speaking on the phone.
“I hear the security guard talking on the phone. I’m assuming he’s speaking to police. He says, ‘I think I see the little girl,’” Place later said during an interview with KTAR.
The little girl he was referring to was 2-year-old Kehlani Rogers, who had been reported missing earlier that day from her home in Avondale.
An Amber Alert describing the toddler and a 23-year-old woman identified as Marina Noriega had been circulating across Arizona.
Place immediately walked back outside and flagged down coworker Ralph Vollmert. The two men compared what they had just seen in the parking lot with the photograph attached to the alert.
“I showed him the Amber Alert photo, he’s like, that’s her. That’s her. Because I swear that’s the child that she just ran past me,” Vollmert said.
The child was near a pickup truck parked in the lot. The woman believed to be Noriega was also there.
Rather than approach the vehicle or attempt to physically intervene, the crew made a rapid decision to contain the situation.
Using their large moving trucks, they maneuvered into positions that effectively blocked the pickup from leaving the lot.
One truck pulled in behind the vehicle to prevent it from reversing. A second truck was angled in front, cutting off any path forward.
Place wrote down the truck’s license plate number and handed it to the QuikTrip security guard, who was still communicating with authorities.
He then returned to the moving truck and turned on its camera system to document what was happening.
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Vollmert later said the woman never attempted to drive off before officers arrived. Within minutes, police cruisers flooded the parking lot.
According to the Avondale Police Department, Phoenix Police received a tip from employees of a moving company who reported spotting the toddler and the suspect at the gas station.
Officers responded and recovered Kehlani without incident. Noriega was taken into custody at the scene.
Police said the child appeared frightened but did not suffer physical injuries. After being located, she reportedly told officers she wanted her mother and father.
Camelback Moving President Chad Olsen said he later reviewed dashcam footage capturing the exchange among his crew members.
“We’re a moving company, so we’re not professional heroes by any means,” Olsen said.
He described hearing his employees quickly identify the child from the alert, confirm the match and coordinate a plan to keep the vehicle from escaping.
A company statement credited QuikTrip security guard C. Edmonds with first noticing that the woman and child matched the alert description.
Edmonds then sought help from the movers to verify what he was seeing and to identify the correct vehicle.
Police booked Noriega into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Intake, Transfer and Release facility on one count of custodial interference, a class 3 felony.
Authorities said Noriega had recently met Kehlani’s family. According to investigators, the toddler’s parents allowed her to stay overnight at their home because she was homeless.
Court documents state that Kehlani’s father woke around 6 a.m. to care for another child and discovered that both Noriega and the 2-year-old were gone.
Detectives later interviewed Noriega following her arrest. According to the affidavit, she claimed she had coincidentally found her biological daughter after traveling to Arizona to locate family.
Investigators reported that Noriega provided multiple incorrect versions of the child’s name, including Malina, Mailai, Mailina and Malini.
She also gave a birth date that was two years earlier than Kehlani’s actual date of birth.
When detectives pressed her for clarification, police said she became frustrated and indicated she wanted to stop talking.
The report states that Noriega told officers she would have been “happy” had they not tracked her down.
She denied manipulating the child’s parents to facilitate the removal of the toddler from the home.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” she told investigators, according to the affidavit. “They asked me to stay over there and they were helping me.”
Police records also indicate that she acknowledged taking advantage of the situation.
Prosecutors told the court during a Feb. 23 hearing that Noriega admitted to using methamphetamine while she had the toddler.
Court documents state that the two slept on the street for part of the time Kehlani was missing. Bond was set at $250,000.
Family members said they have remained close to Kehlani since she was returned home.
Her aunt, Taliyah Banks, described the relief the family felt after receiving the call that the toddler had been found.
“Kehlani is doing fantastic. She’s still her same bubbly self, and she’s doing great. It’s a blessing that everything is good with her,” Banks said.
The family asked that no current photographs of Kehlani be shared publicly but expressed appreciation for those who helped locate her.
Banks later personally thanked Vollmert for his quick thinking. “You literally gave me and my family peace, and I am so grateful that you guys acted without hesitation,” she said.
Vollmert said the decision to act did not require discussion. “We’re all fathers. We all have children ourselves. So there was no hesitation. We just wanted to do what we could to get her home,” he commented.
The Avondale Police Department announced that both the QuikTrip security guard and the Camelback Moving crew will be recognized during a ceremony honoring their role in the safe recovery of the child.
