Grandmother arrested in Tennessee after abducting 8-year-old from Gaithersburg
Miriam Garcia, 8, of Gaithersburg, Maryland. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Police Department)
GAITHERSBURG, Md. - The grandmother of an 8-year-old Gaithersburg girl has been arrested after police said she abducted the child and took her to Tennessee.
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police - Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) found 41-year-old Karla Vanessa Martinez and her granddaughter Miriam Garcia last Thursday in a parking lot in Springfield, Tennessee. Police said the child was unharmed.
Karla Vanessa Martinez, 41. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Police Department)
On Monday, March 27, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Martinez, charging her with kidnapping related charges. Three days later she was arrested with the help of local police, and transported to a correctional facility in Springfield.
Martinez will be soon be extradited to Montgomery County, according to police.
Carla Vanessa Martinez, 40. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Police Department)
Garcia has been reunited with her immediate family.
Police believe Garcia was kidnaped by her grandma from her home on Marshall Street in Gaithersburg on Saturday March 25. At the time, she was last seen wearing a white jacket and black/white tie-dye pants.