Children found safe after witnesses saw them put in trunk of car at local park

Three children who were the focus of an urgent search after several witnesses reported that they saw a woman putting them in the trunk of a vehicle late Monday afternoon and driving away from Miss Nellie’s Pretty Place in Cameron Park in Waco were found safe Monday evening.

“They were located in the Bell County area with the assistance of the Bell County Sheriff’s Office,” Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said in a brief statement.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the area were on the lookout for an older model blue four-door Toyota Prius driven by a blonde woman in her late 30s in connection with the incident.

Witnesses told police that a second woman, also blonde, was a passenger in the car.

At least one of the women was seen putting two, possibly three children into the trunk of the vehicle and telling them to be quiet,” Swanton said in an earlier press release.

“At this very early point of the investigation it is unknown exactly what the situation is. However due to an abundance of caution and concern for children being possibly placed in the trunk of an operating motor vehicle, we are immediately asking for our public's assistance in locating the above described vehicle,” Swanton said in the press release.