Amber Alert Issued for Pinales Sisters in Texas
Kendra Nicole Lee, Jasmine Pinales and Mariana Pinales went missing Friday.
May 25, 2011 — -- It's every parents' worst nightmare. To come home and find your children missing. Right now a young working mother in central Texas is living that nightmare. To make matters worse, authorities believe her 1- and 2-year-old daughters were taken by their 14-year-old sister.
According to the Hays County Texas Sheriff's Office, last Friday morning, 36-year-old Lorrie Cantu left for her early morning shift at a local transportation company. Cantu's 14-year-old daughter, Kendra Nicole Lee, was left at home to babysit her two sisters, Jasmine Pinales and Mariana Pinales.
Cantu kept in contact with her teenage daughter throughout the day with phone calls and text messages. She picked up an extra shift at work and when she arrived home that night at 11:30 p.m., the family's white Chevy pickup truck was gone, and so were the girls, police said
Cantu and her husband, who lives in Austin (the parents are separated), began contacting family and friends in the Austin area, desperately trying to find the girls, because Kendra had a history of running away.
On Saturday, a family member spotted the missing pickup truck off of Burton Road in Austin and called Cantu, who went to the scene. The relative told Cantu that two unidentified black males were seen running away from the vehicle, but there was no sign of the missing girls, police said.
When she arrived, Cantu found the doors on the pickup were open and the front seat was moved forward, which led her to believe that Kendra might have been driving the truck.
Detectives in Hays County conducted a second interview with the mother and found out that Kendra has a serious mental illness and is not currently taking her medication. They issued an Amber Alert needed and listed the girls as missing and endangered. Detectives tried tracking Kendra's mobile phone via GPS, and came up with nothing. A warrant has been issued for Kendra's arrest for kidnapping her two younger sisters.
Kendra Nicole Lee, also known as Alejandra Rodriguez, is a Black female, 14.. She is 5'5" tall and weighs 125 pounds. She has brown hair, and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a white tank top and blue skirt.
Mariana Lynn Pinales, is a 1-year-old Hispanic female. She is 2'5" tall, weighs 30 pounds and has brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a pink faded "onesie" diaper, and pink diamond earrings.
Their sister Jasmine Marie Pinales is a 2 year old Hispanic female. She is 2'5", weighs 40 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a long sleeved gray shirt with a heart on the front of the shirt and pull ups.
The Hays County Sheriff's Department is urging anyone who seen Kendra, Mariana or Jasmine to immediately call 9-1-1.
