Inset: Cindy Sanchez (Aurora Police Department). Background: Chicago’s Midway Airport (Google Maps).
A Texas woman was recently arrested after trying to facilitate the pay-to-play kidnapping of two children and have them sent to Mexico, according to law enforcement in Illinois.
Cindy Sanchez, 47, stands accused of two counts each of kidnapping by deceit or enticement, unlawful restraint, and child abduction – parent without custody, according to 16th Judicial Circuit records.
The defendant was caught this week at Midway International Airport with two children in tow – an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old – according to a press release issued by the Aurora Police Department.
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Responding officers arrived at a home on Rosewood Avenue in Aurora – a large suburban community located some 40 miles due west of Chicago – at around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday in response to the family’s concerns about a possible double kidnapping, police said.
“Officers arrived on scene and learned the two juveniles were staying with family at the time,” the press release reads. “An unknown female arrived at their home and stated she needed to take the juveniles on their mother’s behalf to her location out of state.”
As it turned out, those kidnapping fears were allegedly borne out – Sanchez allegedly left with both children but the children’s mother said she had never permitted anyone to take the pair anywhere.
The local law enforcement agency then enlisted the help of the significantly larger Chicago Police Department to track down the trio.
Police found Sanchez and both children at Midway Airport – the Second City’s second-busiest airport – and the woman was arrested.
Both children were recovered – safe and unharmed – police said.
Then, investigators uncovered the locus of the alleged plot.
Sanchez is a resident of Fort Worth, Texas – the second-largest of three major cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex. The defendant was further identified as a relative of the children’s father.
“It was learned the children’s father, who does not have legal custody of the children, paid the suspect to bring the children to him in Mexico via the Texas border,” the police department said.
Sanchez was arrested on Friday and detained in the Kane County Adult Justice Center. She was out of jail by Saturday morning after a Friday court appearance resulted in a release order. The defendant is next slated to appear in court for a status hearing on Sept. 18.
