Parents Accidentally Leave Child Behind Tacoma Girl, Family Reunited About 8 Hours, 320 Miles Later

For the second Sunday in a row, a little girl was abandoned in central California.

But this time, it was an accident.

April Koch, a slight 12-year-old from Tacoma, accidentally was left behind when her family made an early morning stop Sunday at the rest area along Interstate 5 at Westley, Calif.

“The little girl was asleep in the back seat under a blanket when the parents stopped at the rest area to change drivers,” said Stanislaus County sheriff’s Lt. Dave Richards. “They got out thinking she was still asleep; she got out and went to use the bathroom; then the parents got back in and drove away.”

Her parents were about 160 miles south - in Button Willow, not far from Bakersfield - when they discovered April was missing.

Meanwhile back at the rest area, another traveler found April wandering around and called 911 at 5 a.m. to report a lost little girl in a black dress with white polka dots.

A deputy picked April up and brought her to department headquarters in downtown Modesto. April gave deputies a good description of her father’s white Oldsmobile and the telephone number of an aunt back in Tacoma.

The aunt in Washington had the telephone number of the aunt in Bakersfield the Kochs were on their way to visit, and deputies called her as well.

“We also notified the California Highway Patrol and had them be on the lookout for the car,” Richards said.

While the search for her folks was going on, April went to sleep on an overstuffed coach in a back office at the Sheriff’s Department. She was asleep when her parents discovered she was missing and called the California Highway Patrol from a roadside call box in Button Willow. The highway patrol directed the family back to Modesto.

April slept until about 11:30, then was treated to a McDonald’s Happy Meal by sheriff’s employees. Her parents drove up about 12:30 p.m.

“When I told her her parents were nearly to Bakersfield when they turned around, she said, ‘Oh, man, all that gas,”’ Richards said. “Then when they got her, there was a big tearful reunion.”

It was just a week before, on July 9, when a farmer and his dog found “Baby Angel,” an hours-old infant who had been left to die on an Oakdale canal bank in Stanislaus County. The infant was still in good health and has recovered.

That child’s mother still is missing.