KIDNAPPING PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY GCSO

Sheriff Stacy Nicholson releases the following information:

On January 4, 2012 deputies and detectives from the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office responded to a kidnapping report, alleging that Linda Stanfield age 44 of Mulkey Road had taken a 7 year old child from school without the parents’ permission. Originally it was reported Stanfield had a gun with her.

Officers received the call at 3:12pm and quickly responded by looking for Stanfield and the child throughout the county. Lookouts were also placed in the surrounding counties as well. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations was notified and prepared to assist.

Investigators were in the process of activating an Amber Alert and following up on certain leads. Those leads led to information that Stanfield was on Holden Road in the south end of Gilmer County. Officers, who were already, near that area, responded and located Stanfield and the child in Stanfield’s Ford Escape. The child was not harmed.

There was no firearm discovered at the scene but detectives report that Stanfield had a firearm at some point during the afternoons’ activity. There are no indications Stanfield had intentions to harm the child with the firearm.

When Interviewed by the detectives, Stanfield said her “intentions was to take the child and start somewhere else new”. Stanfield was arrested and charged with Kidnapping of a minor, False Imprisonment and Cruelty to Children in the second degree. She remained in the Gilmer County Detention Center until January 6, 2012 where she was released on a ($30,000) Thirty Thousand Dollar bond.