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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Jackie Howard, executive producer

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Speaker 1: of Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Police have been searching

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Speaker 1: for Paisley Schultis for nearly two years. The little girl

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Speaker 1: was four years old when she was reported missing in

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. It was thought that she had been kidnapped

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Speaker 1: by her non custodial parents. At the time the little

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Speaker 1: girl went missing, her parents were involved in a larger

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Speaker 1: custodial battle over the little girl and her older sibling.

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Speaker 1: Police have now announced that Paisley Schultis, now six, has

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Speaker 1: been found safe and alive. She was found at the

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Speaker 1: home of her grandfather, who owned the house where the

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Speaker 1: little girl was found. Paisley was taken to the police

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Speaker 1: station where she was met by paramedics and she was

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Speaker 1: pronounced in good health and released to her legal guardian.

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Speaker 1: This is not the first time that police had been

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Speaker 1: to this home. They had made multiple attempts to look

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Speaker 1: for the little girl at the residence. However, they were

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Speaker 1: met with opposition. At the time, police did not have

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Speaker 1: a search warrant, met with opposition from the residents, denying

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Speaker 1: them access to the home. After receiving a tip, State

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Speaker 1: police took a search warrant to the residence. Kirkscheltz Senior,

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Speaker 1: again who owns the house, told police he did not

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Speaker 1: know where the little girl was and had not seen

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Speaker 1: her since she went missing. However, investigators went into the

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Speaker 1: home and an eagle eye investigator is who made all

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Speaker 1: the difference in this case. Detective Eric Field noticed something

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Speaker 1: odd about the way steps were built, something was out

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Speaker 1: of place. Field then took flashlight and shined it through

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Speaker 1: a crack between the wooden steps and saw what he

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Speaker 1: thought was a blanket. Then detective saw a pair of

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Speaker 1: tiny feet. They removed more steps and found Paisley, along

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Speaker 1: with her thirty three year old mother, Kimberly Cooper. Cooper

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Speaker 1: and father Kirkshells Junior were taken into custody at the time.

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Speaker 1: Joining me now is Mark class, the founder of Class Kids. Mark,

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Speaker 1: what's your thoughts, Well, there are several things. First of all,

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Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thing when any missing child is recovered,

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Speaker 1: and we all know that with the passage of time

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Speaker 1: that recovery becomes less likely and less likely, So it's

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Speaker 1: a it's a marvelous thing that she has been recovered,

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Speaker 1: and that has to give great hope to all of

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Speaker 1: the other parents of children that remain missing. Certainly there's that.

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Speaker 1: The second thing that really strikes me about this case

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Speaker 1: is the conditions under which this child was living. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they were not sending her to school, and they were

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Speaker 1: not educating her at home. They were hiding her out

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Speaker 1: in this horrible little box underneath the staircase. They were

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Speaker 1: hiding her in secrecy. She was off the grid, and

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Speaker 1: nobody deserves that in their life, if she deserves all

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Speaker 1: the advantages that come with a loving family in their childhood,

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Speaker 1: not this kind of horrible treatment that she was receiving.

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Speaker 1: It was not in her best welfare or in the

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Speaker 1: best welfare of anybody associated with this situation. Now obviously

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Speaker 1: we know that, but as a four year old child,

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Speaker 1: is it possible that she just thought this was normal.

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Speaker 1: That you know, when somebody knocks on the door, you

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Speaker 1: run an hide. Of course she thought it was normal.

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Speaker 1: She's been conditioned to believe that it's normal. She is

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Speaker 1: just a little child, we have to remember, and I

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Speaker 1: suppose she probably thinks in her mind, if it even

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Speaker 1: goes that far, that all little children are in similar circumstances.

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Speaker 1: I mean, can't you look back on your life and

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Speaker 1: see things that you thought were normal in your childhood

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Speaker 1: that actually turned out not to be normal. I know

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Speaker 1: I can. What is the difference, mark, and I'm not

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Speaker 1: talking about an abduction where the child is mistreated or killed?

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Speaker 1: What is the difference in a parental abduction? Even if

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Speaker 1: it's a non parental and a stranger abduction? Was this

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Speaker 1: child in any less danger? She was in much less danger.

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Speaker 1: Parental abductions are usually about non custodial parents kidnapping the

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Speaker 1: child so that they can have custody for whatever reason.

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Speaker 1: Very rarely in those situations are the children's lives and endangered.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there have been some high profile cases, but

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Speaker 1: generally these are the children that when they are located,

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Speaker 1: are going to be alive. Is it always that way?

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Speaker 1: I mean, is you're talking a high percentage there for that? No,

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about a high percentage. I mean there are

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Speaker 1: revenge cases or vindicative situations where if I can't have

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Speaker 1: the child, nobody can have the child, and parents will

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Speaker 1: take those children and then then unfortunately murder them. There's

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Speaker 1: really no justifiable excuse for a non custodial parent to

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Speaker 1: take a young child. It's not in the child's best

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Speaker 1: interest the vast majority of the time, and if a

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Speaker 1: judgment needs to be made, that judgment needs to be

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Speaker 1: made in a court of law, not in the back

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Speaker 1: alleys of somebody's mind. This little girl has been missing

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Speaker 1: for two years. Obviously the family. She was found at

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Speaker 1: the grandfather's home. The entire family set out to hide

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Speaker 1: this child. I mean, in a case like this, two years,

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Speaker 1: there's really kind of just a drop in the bucket,

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Speaker 1: it is sure. I mean, this could have gone on indefinitely. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: they weren't clever enough to keep her that well hidden

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Speaker 1: because they received multiple tips that the little girl is

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Speaker 1: or might be in the house. So this was not

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Speaker 1: the first rodeo for these officers. They've been back there

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Speaker 1: plenty of times before. It's just at this time an

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Speaker 1: eagle eyed detective figured out what was going on and

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Speaker 1: they were able to locate her in the secret room

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Speaker 1: under the staircase, the small, dark, damp secret room under

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Speaker 1: the staircase. Why do you think it took so long, because,

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Speaker 1: as you said, the police have been at that residence

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Speaker 1: several times. What took so long to find her, Well,

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it took two years to get a

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Speaker 1: warrant to the property. I mean, that's what made the difference.

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Speaker 1: This time. They had carte blanche to move around in

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Speaker 1: and around the property, and they've never had that before.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes there would be resistance from the family regarding allowing

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Speaker 1: the police in, and sometimes they would be allowed in,

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Speaker 1: maybe to the entryway, but certainly not to be able

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Speaker 1: to do an exhaustive search, which is what resulted in

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Speaker 1: her recovery. Mark, How does an amber alert work in

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Speaker 1: this type of situation, a parental abduction versus a stranger abduction?

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Speaker 1: Because of the criteria that is set up for Amber alerts,

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Speaker 1: the only cases that oftentimes qualify are parental abduction cases,

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Speaker 1: and that's because one of the criteria is abductor's vehicle information. Now,

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Speaker 1: in a case like Paul's or J. C. Dugards are

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Speaker 1: so many of these other historical cases nobody knows what

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Speaker 1: the abductor was driving because they exist in stealth. But

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Speaker 1: in parental situations you do know. So it turns out

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Speaker 1: that many, many, many Amber alerts that are issued in

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Speaker 1: this country are issued in non custodial cases, and as

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Speaker 1: we discussed earlier, those are not the cases where the

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Speaker 1: children the most, the ones where the children need amber

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Speaker 1: alerts are situations where the child has been taken in

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Speaker 1: the dead of night by somebody that is not known

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Speaker 1: to anybody, because those are the ones that find themselves

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Speaker 1: find themselves dead eventually. So you knows as critical as

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Speaker 1: parental abductions are, I think there should be another alert

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Speaker 1: criteria because it comes up the whole idea of amber

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Speaker 1: alerts again. Paisley Schultis, missing for two years, has been

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Speaker 1: found safe and alive with her non custodial parents. Schultis

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Speaker 1: Junior and Senior were both charged with first degree custodial interference,

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Speaker 1: a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child. Cooper

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Speaker 1: has been charged with second degree custodial interference endangering the

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Speaker 1: welfare of a child as well. These charges are both

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Speaker 1: misdemeanor