Missing kids were with kin

One man was in custody and two children sought in a nationwide Amber Alert were found unharmed in a remote campsite near Priest Lake Monday morning.

Later in the day, police placed Tatiana Siebert, 4, Ford Ware, 5, and three other children in foster care, citing concerns about their welfare.

Tatiana and Ford, who were the subjects of air and ground searches and whose portraits were placed on nationwide fliers, may never have been abducted at all.

Members of an extended family, who had been driving around Idaho in a “Grapes of Wrath”-style search for jobs, said Monday evening that the separation of the children – who were riding in a stranger’s car – appears to have been a misunderstanding after half of a four-vehicle caravan became separated while driving through Coeur d’Alene last Thursday. Police agree the children may never have been abducted.

“One phone call could have cleared this up,” said Lt. Don Jiran of the Coeur d’Alene police detectives division.

Instead, police and family members say, once the caravan separated, two cars continued to the Bonner County campsite, even leaving a paper plate with an arrow on it to mark the way. The occupants of the other two vehicles, including a distraught mother and grandmother of the missing kids, went to Coeur d’Alene police with a missing children’s report.

The two parties never got in touch with each other. None had cell phones, and the group in Bonner County told police they didn’t have money for a pay phone and simply trusted that the remaining party members would eventually catch up.

Tatiana, Ford and three other siblings were found unharmed with family members at a camp site along Bear Paw Road off of state Highway 57 just south of Priest Lake. The owners and staff of a nearby tavern put out a spread for the hungry kids as police began their investigation, Jiran said.

Jiran said the search was hampered by a long delay in reporting the kids missing.

Yvonne Siebert, Tatiana’s mom, said she had searched in vain for the other vehicles after the group became separated when turning north of Interstate 90 onto U.S. Highway 95 last week. Distraught, she and her mother, Brenda Moore, drove from Coeur d’Alene to Sandpoint and back without locating the car with the missing kids. They then made a report to Coeur d’Alene police, who began an Amber Alert Friday afternoon.

But Monday’s mixed outcome left mixed emotions for Yvonne Siebert and her sister Jennifer Anderson, Ford’s mother.

“I’m thankful my children are safe, and I thank everybody who helped watch for the vehicle, but I don’t think it’s right the cops won’t let us see our children, and now I have to go to court to prove I’m a perfect mom. You should be guilty of something before they take your children away,” Yvonne Siebert said.

The women have court dates in Bonner County today.

Siebert was shaking with anger at times Monday night, as family members stood on the sidelines of a news conference in the parking lot of the Coeur d’Alene police station. Police officials described all five of the kids as malnourished and exhibiting open sores.

“Sores?” Yvonne Siebert asked, unbelievingly. “When you are camping of course you get banged up.”

Raising her own tanned leg she pointed to a healing cut and said, “They could call this an open sore.”

But police, as well as some cousins who arrived from Montana, said living on the open road is no life for kids. There were six kids in the original convoy, ranging in age from 8 years to 4 months.

The ending to the five-day drama began on a remote back road near Priest Lake early Monday when Capt. Ginger Swisher of the U.S. Forest Service saw a gold Lincoln Town Car traveling the gravel road. A self-described traveling preacher, John Marc Thompson, had been identified as driving such a car with the two missing children in it when the convoy separated Thursday.

Swisher followed the car and approached the driver – identified as Thompson, a man wanted in four states – when the Lincoln pulled into a driveway. Thompson was alone in the car and admitted to Swisher that he had indeed come to the Priest Lake area last week with Tatiana Siebert and Ford Ware. He told Swisher where the family was camped, some eight miles distant.

Thompson was arrested on suspicion of second-degree kidnapping, but because of the ambiguity of the situation, he has not been charged, said Sgt. Christie Wood, information officer for the Coeur d’Alene police. Prosecutors in both Bonner and Kootenai counties will review the matter to determine if charges should be filed.

Police also said Thompson’s car was filled with provisions, tents and other camping gear – even a still-cold watermelon – and say they believe he was skipping out on the family members and stealing their gear.