Kids still missing

Coeur d’Alene Police have been unsuccessful in their attempts to use the Amber Alert system to spread the word nationally about two young children reported abducted by a transient on Thursday.

Four-year-old Tatiana Siebert and her 5-year-old cousin, Ford Ware, are still missing.

Now, police are also searching for Ford’s parents and three other children with whom they were last seen at the time of the abduction. Police will say only that they want to check on the well-being of those five people.

On Saturday, police obtained a $500,000 warrant for the arrest of the suspect, John “Jack” Marc Thompson, who is wanted on two counts of second-degree kidnapping. Thompson had already been wanted in other states to face charges for theft and other alleged crimes, police report.

The abduction occurred Thursday when Thompson was leading a group of 12 transients from their campsite along the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River to a site near Sandpoint. Ware – whom police incorrectly identified as Ford Ward on Friday but corrected in reports Saturday – and Siebert were riding with Thompson. Their families were following in two other cars.

Siebert’s family told police that Thompson motioned the other cars to pass him and a semitruck he was following. The two cars got off Interstate 90 at Coeur d’Alene’s Fourth Street exit, as had previously been agreed, but Thompson never arrived.

Ford’s parents, Jennifer Anderson and Les Ward, soon returned to the highway after realizing Thompson had not exited, Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Christie Wood said.

With Ward and Anderson are their children, Cheyenne, 3, and Daniel, 4 months. Five-year-old Dale Wayne, who is Tatiana’s brother, is also with the missing family.

Thompson reportedly befriended the group of transients about three weeks ago, telling them he was an ordained minister. Police said the move to the Sandpoint area was Thompson’s idea, and that he told the group who should ride in which cars.

“He’s kind of the leader, and they’re the followers,” Wood said.

Thompson, 56, was last seen driving a 1996 gold Lincoln Town Car with the Louisiana license JFP027. Ward and Anderson are driving a 1991 black Ford Explorer with Idaho plates of IA GB768.

The car Thompson is driving was stolen from Louisiana, and he is wanted in Mississippi for embezzlement, in Colorado for theft and stealing a vehicle, and in Arizona for theft. Police say he has lived at campgrounds for most of his life.

“He has been known to travel all throughout the United States,” Wood said. “We don’t have any reason to believe he stuck around Idaho.”

Yvonne Siebert, the mother of Tatiana, reported to police Thursday that she had been separated from her children.

Police said Siebert was not alarmed that her child had been taken because she thought the group would meet up. When she hadn’t heard word on their location by Friday afternoon, police issued the Amber Alert.

Police have attempted to use the Amber Alert system, which would communicate the case information nationally. Each state has certain criteria for issuing an Amber Alert, however. Only Idaho has issued the alert.

“We’re going as fast as we can, but it’s going to be a very long process,” Wood said.

Police have contacted the FBI, Idaho state parks officials, the U.S. Forest Service and state law enforcement agencies. Wood said she thinks the FBI has asked the agencies to actively patrol for the missing children.

Anyone with information about the children, the missing family or Thompson should call 911.