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Maci Lilley, A missing 4-year-old girl has been found alive on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana after she was reportedly abducted.
Maci Lilley was the subject of a 38-hour manhunt and a statewide Amber Alert until late Sunday morning when Roosevelt County Undersheriff Corey Reum found the girl outside of town.
Sheriff Jason Frederick made the announcement just before noon Sunday on the department’s Facebook page. Maci Lilley was found about 11:20 a.m. and appeared to be in good health and was undergoing a medical evaluation, he said.
Maci’s family has been notified and she will be rejoined with them soon.
The sheriff’s department said the kidnapping investigation is still active and it will release more information once it’s available. The FBI has taken over the investigation of the case with assistance from local police agencies.
A few hours after she was taken to the hospital, Maci Lilley was flown by air ambulance to a Billings hospital for further treatment, family members said.
“When she was found she appeared to be physically OK but it’s natural for them to take precautions for a victim of this nature and be seen by a medical facility,” said Lee Ulmer, a designated spokesman for the sheriff’s department.
Minutes after Lilley was found, law officers and volunteer searchers gathered at the hospital. Several community members and some of Lilley’s friends delivered teddy bears and gifts to her hospital room.
“Thank God she’s alive,” said volunteer searcher Kim Keiser of Glasgow, who brought her retired K-9 dog Forrest Gonzalez to Wolf Point on Sunday to aid in the search. “I needed to do something. Forrest is old (10 years) but I figured he could do something, too.”
She was among dozens of volunteers who searched on foot, with ATVs and four-wheel-drive vehicles for the past two days.
Family members said Maci Lilley was found east of Wolf Point and was awake and talking when she was discovered.
The suspect, John “Billy” Lieba, 20, is expected to appear in Fort Peck Tribal Court Monday on a charge of felony kidnapping. Since the case occurred on an Indian reservation, the U.S Attorney’s Office in Great Falls has the option of charging the suspect in federal court.
Late Saturday and early Sunday, volunteer searchers met at the home of Lilley’s grandmother, Valerie Comes Last, to plan out a community-wide search and study maps of the area. Law enforcement set up a command center at the Wolf Point Community Hall.
Outside the home, law enforcement officers from about a half-dozen agencies looked for footprints in the west side neighborhood and searched the area nearby the railroad tracks and King’s Cemetery, an old Indian cemetery about a half mile from Comes Lasts’ house.
An airplane was also circling overhead looking for the victim and some officers were also going house-to-house asking questions.
Search organizer Lance Fourstar said the FBI and sheriff’s department called off their search for the night about 7 p.m. Saturday but volunteers wanted to continue into the night. They searched the Wolf Point area from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., he said, looking in garbage bins, abandoned buildings and alleyways.
“We mainly did it to give the family some comfort and peace of mind,” Fourstar said. The FBI later told Fourstar and the family to halt volunteer searches as to not impede those made by law officers.
Comes Last, who has raised Lilley since she was a baby along with three of the girl’s other siblings, lives kitty-corner from the playground where Maci was taken. The playground is surrounded by residences on all four sides and is busy most of the day and night. She said she never feared for the safety of her grandchildren at the park.
Comes Last moved into the neighborhood in November after her home on the south side of town burned to the ground from an accidental fire.
Friday night, she told her grandkids to be in about dark but around 9 p.m. she noticed the house was too quiet. She peaked at the playground from her porch and noticed two young boys playing basketball, but Maci was not in sight.
A neighborhood boy said that John Lieba had grabbed Maci and put his hand over her mouth before dragging her from the playground and heading down an alley. Comes Last called the police and a search soon began. The Amber Alert was issued early Saturday morning.
Comes Last said they didn’t know Lieba personally but had heard rumors about him causing trouble in the neighborhood in the weeks leading up to the incident.
Lieba was arrested after he was found driving around a different Wolf Point neighborhood Saturday morning. He was taken into custody and is being held at the Roosevelt County Detention Facility.
Fourstar and Comes Last said the response from the community has been overwhelming. “Everyone came and helped. It started just after we reported it to the police,” she said.
Throughout the ordeal, local residents delivered food and water to Comes Last’s home.
“A lot of people wanted to help but they didn’t know how. That’s why we put a lot of effort into a search,” Fourstar added. The family is planning a community gathering at a later date to show their appreciation to law enforcement and the community for helping in the search for the missing girl.
A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help Lilley’s family with expenses while they are in Billings for the girl’s hospital stay.
Agencies/Canadajournal
