Amber Alert issued for girl abducted from school by mother

WEST VALLEY CITY — Police have issued an Amber Alert for a 10-year-old girl abducted from her West Valley elementary school Friday afternoon.

Aliyah Kay Crowder was waiting in a lunch line at Silver Hills Elementary School, 5770 West 5100 South, when she was forcibly taken by her mother, 38-year-old Venus Athena Barker.

Barker does not have custody of Aliyah, West Valley City Police Sgt. Mike Powell told reporters Friday afternoon.

"At this point we are concerned for her welfare," Powell said. "She is not supposed to be with her mother."

Details of the abduction

According to Horsley, Barker went into the school just after 12 p.m. and headed for the hallway leading to the cafeteria.

"It appears that her actions were very precise," Horsley said. "She passed by the office in front of a sign that asks people to register in the office as visitors. She went to the line. She saw her daughter in line to go into the cafeteria area ... and grabbed her daughter and started forcibly moving her toward the front entrance."

A teacher in the cafeteria asked Barker if she had properly checked her daughter out out of school, Horsley said, and Barker indicated she had. But a secretary who had followed her from the office intervened.

"(The secretary) indicated ‘no you have not checked her out' and proceeded to ask her to come to the office to address so they could address the situation," Horsley said.

Barker gave the secretary "professed legal documents, which turned out to be nothing," Horsley said. Then she went around the teacher and out the door.

The secretary chased Barker into the parking lot, but was unable to stop her from getting in a vehicle with Aliyah.

Police say the vehicle — a grey Chevy Impala — was being driven by Aliyah's step-father, Sanford Barker, and the three were able to get away.

"It is difficult to say (what the motive is) at this point," Powell said. "We definitely don't want this to go any further. We want to be able to stop this as quickly and as promptly as we possibly can."

Not the first time this has happened

Friday was not the first time the girl has been abducted.

Aliyah was reunited with her father in October of last year after she had been missing for about eight months. Police recovered her after her stepfather, Sanford Barker, failed to stop for an officer who attempted to pull him over for a broken taillight, WDAY News 6 in North Dakota reported. Instead, Barker allegedly sped up and fled to a camper in a trailer park.

#fenstermaker_quote

Killdeer, N.D., police impounded Sanford Barker's car, where they found a photo of a young girl that matched the description of Aliyah. The station reported that the girl had been staying with her mother, Athena Venus Barker, and Sanford Grayson Barker, neither of whom had custody of the child.

Police believed the girl had been in Killdeer since she was reported missing and was not attending school.

“I don’t think they let her out very much,” Killdeer Police Chief Chris Fenstermaker told WDAY in October. “That’s why it took us so long to find out where she was at.”

Aliyah is 4 feet 4 inches tall, weighs about 70 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes. Aliyah was wearing a dark blue shirt, knee-length jeans, and Converse boots — one with black laces and the other with white laces.

Barker is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. She also has brown hair and blue eyes, and was wearing a brown leather jacket.

West Valley police ask anyone with more information to call 911.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Stay with ksl.com, KSL TV and KSL Newsradio 102.7FM/1160AM for the latest updates.

Contributing: Jennifer Stagg

Email: hschwarz@desnews.com

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