Family feared mother charged in Coast kidnapping would kill her 2 sons, authorities say
Sarah Lynne Caswell’s family feared she’d kill her two sons because of messages she posted on her Facebook page after she kidnapped the siblings, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Caswell, 33, of Mobile, took her two children early Friday evening shortly after she arrived at Beach Park in Pascagoula for a supervised visit with the boys, Kaiden and Kolden Wall, ages 6 and 2 respectively.
She had lost custody of her children in July, when Jackson County Youth Court Judge Sharon Sigalis placed the two boys in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services.
The boys had been staying with their foster parents.
In a federal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, more details about the kidnapping came out.
On Friday, around 5:20 p.m., Caswell arrived at Beach Park in Pascagoula for a supervised visit with the boys. After she got there, the complaint says, she asked the foster parents if her two sons could sit in her car, a gray 2007 Audi, and visit with her.
The foster parents agreed to her request.
Once Caswell got the children in the car, she hesitated a minute, then shut the car doors, jumped in the driver’s seat and took off.
Over the course of the next two days, local, state and federal authorities searched for Caswell and the children.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation issued an endangered and missing child alert that they later upgraded to an amber alert in Mississippi and Alabama as their concerns for the children’s safety rose.
The concerns over any potential harm to the boys came to a head when Caswell’s family and friends started calling Pascagoula police to tell them she was posting “crazy stuff” on Facebook.
The family told police they feared “Caswell was going to kill the kids to prevent anyone else from getting them,” the complaint says
In the posts, Caswell went on and on about how no one knew how to take care of her children and protect them better than her because she was their mother.
She wrote other messages suggesting she needed money.
She also went on about how no one would take away her right to care and protect her children “whether I am dead or alive,” adding, “If I don’t make it thru this game, I hope someone tells my kids I fought until the end.”
Law enforcement officials tracked Caswell’s movements, and determined she had gone back to Mobile after the kidnapping.
During her time on the run with the kids, Caswell drove to one man’s home in Mobile and stayed there for the night with her two sons.
The man told police he drove to McDonald’s to get the boys some food because they were hungry. He told authorities Caswell tried to sell him the car she was driving before she left his home.
Police also tracked Caswell to a home in Grand Bay, where she stopped to ask a friend for money, but her friend refused to help her and Caswell left with the children.
Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies spotted Caswell’s car near a hotel there Monday and took her into custody without incident.
Her sons are back in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Caswell remains in custody without bond.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
