UNION COUNTY, Ohio -- A mother and her two children were found safe in Kansas Friday after authorities issued a statewide endangered missing child alert.
NBC 4 reported with the FAST FACTS Friday.
The Union County sheriff’s office and the FBI were looking for 4-year-old Bradley Christopher Mathis (boy) and a 2-year-old Hunter Chloe Lewis (girl). Initially, the sheriff's office said deputies said they thought the children were with 27-year-old Gail Beldon, their biological mother.
Officials believed the children may have been in danger because Beldon has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and it was suspected that she had not been taking her medication.
Shortly before 5 p.m., the Union County Sheriff's Office said the children and Beldon were found in Kansas safe. Authorities said Beldon heard that they were being sought and stopped at a gas station to call officials.
Authorities said a police officer was at the gas station, verified the identity of Beldon and the children and that they were there by choice. Essentially, officials said, Beldon, who has full custody of her children, took them on a vacation and didn't notify anyone.
Beldon has threatened suicide previously and has previously said she will hide the children so they cannot be found, according to the sheriff's office.
The three were seen last leaving the American Inn at 10220 U.S. Route 42 in Marysville at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, where Beldon lives with Hunter’s father, Jeffrey Lewis.
Lewis went to check on his family at the motel after they had dropped him off at work at Monarch Pizza, but they were gone. Lewis then notified authorities.
For additional information on this developing story, stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
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