Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

News

1-Year-Old Florida Girl Found Miles Away After She Was Missing for More Than a Month

NEED TO KNOW

  • A 1-year-old girl was found in Alabama over a month after she went missing in Florida
  • Anastasia Mason was reported missing on Dec. 2
  • Her mother, Jami Makala Owens, has since been arrested, police said

A 1-year-old girl has been found over a month after she went missing in Florida.

Anastasia Mason was reported missing on Dec. 2. She was last seen with her father, Thomas Zachariah Mason, and her mother, Jami Makala Owens, in Pensacola at the time, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) said in a news release shared on Facebook.

In an update on Thursday, Jan. 15, the ECSO announced that Anastasia had been “safely located” in Uriah, Ala. No other details surrounding her disappearance and discovery were shared.

Owens, 30, was arrested after the 1-year-old was found, the ECSO confirmed, though police did not share what she is charged with. WFLA reported that she previously faced two active outstanding warrants for child abuse and petty theft.

The ECSO shared Owens’ mugshot in its Facebook post, as well as that of Mason, 36, though it is not immediately clear if he was also arrested and faces charges. Both Mason and Owens do not show up in the ECSO’s inmate records as of Jan. 17, and it is not immediately clear if they have legal representation to comment on their behalf.

In December, police entered a hotel, where they found Owens “acting strangely in the lobby” and “unable” to locate her daughter after possibly suffering an overdose, North Escambia and WFLA reported, citing the ECSO.

“We got a call about an individual who was potentially suffering from an overdose. We get there, and it’s actually the mother of the one-year-old,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told WFLA.

Authorities then found Anastasia with a man in a room at the hotel. Inside, police said there was “a quantity of narcotics.”

Owens was sent to the hospital, and during that time, Anastasia went missing. North Escambia reported that police believe Thomas, who shares joint custody of the child with Owens, may have taken her. (It is not clear if the man found in the hotel room was Thomas or a different individual.)

Police later completed an arrest warrant for Owens, according to North Escambia, but by the time they got to the hospital, she had been released.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) then launched an investigation, as Anastasia and both her parents were missing, WFLA reported.

“We think that there’s a possibility that the child’s still with the father, but quite frankly, we don’t know where the child is at this point, and we really want to get the child for that assessment,” Sheriff Simmons told the outlet, before Anastasia was eventually found.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The ECSO did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Jan. 17.

Read the full article here

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

News

Golden Globes Celebrities Protest ICE With ‘Be Good’ Buttons Published January 11, 2026 7:56 PM PST Jean Smart, Mark Ruffalo and Wanda Sykes and...

News

NEED TO KNOW A tourist boat sank following a collision with a fishing ship on Jan. 11 At least one person died and 21...

News

NEED TO KNOW Twelve athletes will represent U.S. figure skating when the 2026 Winter Olympics begin on Feb. 6 in Milan, Italy Amber Glenn,...

News

Nick Reiner Landed in Mental Health Conservatorship in 2020 Published January 15, 2026 12:55 PM PST | Updated January 15, 2026 1:46 PM PST...