A six-year-old girl has been reunited with her legal guardian and sister after being found in a “makeshift room, under a closed staircase”.
Paislee Shultis was four-years-old when she went missing from Tioga County, New York in 2019.
Police believed her parents, Kimberly Cooper, and Kirk Shultis were responsible for the disappearance and had abducted her after losing custody.
On Monday they received a tip that her parents were in fact hiding the child.
Officers entered their property in Cayuga Heights, US, and interviewed Kirk Shultis Sr. who said he did not know the location of Paislee.
Saugerties Police
Whilst searching the house, Detective Erik Thiele said that he "noticed something about the staircase leading from the back of the residence into the basement of the house that caught his attention”.
Saugerties Police
In a statement, Saugerties Police Department said: “At 8:06 PM Saugerties Police Detectives, SPD uniform officers with assistance from the New York State Police BCI and uniform troopers, executed the search on the residence.
“At the time of search warrant execution, Kirk Shultis Jr. was at the residence and denied having any knowledge as to the missing girl's location.
“Several times through the police investigation which expanded over a two-year period, Shultis was interviewed by police and maintained that he had no knowledge as to where the girl was, telling officers that he had not seen the child since she was reported missing in 2019.
“A little over an hour into the search of the residence, the child was located secreted in a makeshift room, under a closed staircase leading to the basement of the residence.”
Police took the child to their headquarters where she was assessed by medics and deemed healthy before being returned to her legal guardian.
Cooper, Shultis Jr. and Shultis Sr. were all arrested and charged with the disappearance of Paislee.
The police are continuing their investigation into the case and have said there are more arrests pending.