Investigations

Abducted Boy Found in Missouri 13 Years Later

Sept. 25, 2013

Livingston County Sheriff's investigators began looking into the child's background earlier this month.

Sandy Hatte, left, is helped out of van outside the Livingston County Court House in Chillicothe, Mo. on Sept. 25.

Authorities in northwest Missouri this week said they rescued a child who was abducted almost 13 years ago in Florida.

Investigators with the Livingston County's sheriff's office in Chillicothe began looking into the child's background earlier this month after a school official raised concerns following the child's enrollment in an area school.

Authorities took custody of the child Wednesday. The child and the child's biological father, whom investigators had found in the southern United States, were reunited this week in Chillicothe.

Officials charged Sandy Hatte, 60, with felony child abduction. A sheriff's office news release described her as being "somehow related to the family."

Hatte was being held in the Daviess/DeKalb County Regional Jail in Pattonsburg. Bond was set at $25,000.

Evidence suggests that the woman and the child had resided in various cities, counties and states over the years and had been in Livingston County not much more than 30 days, according to the sheriff's office.

Authorities did not release the child's gender.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service