Authorities in western Iowa say two children were taken from their father’s home on Monday in Oakland, east of Council Bluffs. Eight-year-old Rae Ann Meyer and her ten-year-old brother, Cameron, are reportedly with their non-custodial mother, 30-year-old Brandi Harris. Lieutenant Tim Thompson, at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s office, says an Amber Alert was issued Monday night.
Thompson says: “The babysitter had let the kids go with the mother at 11 o’clock that morning, thinking that everything was okay. Dad was working in Omaha and he came home and didn’t know his kids were missing until later that evening. Once he reported them missing, (he) gave us the details. We issued the alert but she had already had a six or seven-hour jump on us.” He says the mother, Harris, is thought to be traveling with a boyfriend in a black Toyota Rav-Four S-U-V.
Thompson says,”Direction of travel is kinda’ hard other than they were going to Maine. Her mother lives in Maine. The car they were driving was registered to her mother.” The S-U-V has Maine plates: 6-2-2-8 K-J. The boyfriend is identified as 35-year-old Vince Hatch.
Thompson says Hatch physically assaulted the male child in the past. The Amber Alert was canceled at 4 o’clock this morning by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, per protocol, after being active for five hours without any updated information. Officials are now dealing with the incident as a missing persons case.