A tip-off led police to a six-year-old girl who had been missing for more than two years and was found safe in a secret room 150 miles from where she disappeared, it has been revealed.
Paislee Shultis was found by officers in a secret compartment under a staircase in a home on Fawn Road in Saugerties, New York.
Police had searched the home multiple times prior to the discovery on February 14, as they have long suspected that Paislee had been kidnapped by her non-custodial mother and father, Kim Cooper and Kirk Shultis.
The secret room was described by officers as being “dark and wet”.
Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra, told local media they had been to that location "a number of times", but returned when a new tip came in, leading police to obtain a search warrant for the residence.
Officials had been searching the home for a little over an hour, before one police officer made the discover.
“He took a flashlight and looked between the cracks between the steps," Sinagra told CBS2.
"He saw what he thought it was a blanket, and at that point they used a halogen tool, a forcible entry tool, and they started ripping the steps off the staircase, itself. At one point they saw little feet, as he put it."
Police believed the girl had been in the house for the duration of her disappearance.
While there were no signs of her having been abused, Sinagra said it noted that she could not read nor write, and had not been provided any education within the home.
Paislee was otherwise in good health.
The girl was last seen at the home of her legal guardians in Spencer, New York, in July 2019.
It is believed that Cooper and Shultis, who lost custody of her at some point in 2019, took the girl from that location and have been hiding her since.
Paislee’s older sister has been with her legal guardian since 2019.
Cooper has been charged with custodial interference in the second degree following the discovery, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.
According to the Daily Freeman , she was also wanted on an active warrant.
Shultis has been charged with felony custodial interference in the first degree and misdemeanour endangering the welfare of a child - having denied knowing Paislee’s location multiple times since she disappeared.
His father, who owned the house the girl was found in, was also charged with felony custodial interference in the first degree and misdemeanour endangering the welfare of a child.
"At the time of search warrant execution, the owner of the residence denied having any knowledge of the child's whereabouts telling officers that he had not seen the child since she was reported missing in 2019," a police press release states.
According to Sinagra, Paislee had now been placed with her legal guardian and reunited with her sister.
