The San Diego County Sheriff's Department was searching across the county and beyond Tuesday for a 3-year-old boy who was kidnapped from Vista late Monday.
The child was found and safely returned to his mother, sheriff's said Tuesday afternoon.
The suspect, 46-year-old Donta Law, is wanted for kidnapping the child of his ex-girlfriend in Vista, according to the sheriff's department. Law is described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, medium build, short black hair and has a mustache and goatee. He is wanted on felony charges of vandalism and kidnapping.
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The child's mother arrived at her Vista home Monday night to find her son missing. Even the babysitter had not known the boy was missing or that anyone had broken into the home, sheriff's deputies said.
Prior to the kidnapping, an altercation occurred between Law and the mother at the 600 block of Airport Road in Oceanside. During that altercation, Law smashed her car windows and fled the scene, sheriff's said. She was left unhurt. The mother had a restraining order against him which restricted Law from contacting her.
Sheriff's deputies immediately searched that area and the areas Law was known to frequent with assistance from a helicopter, according to the department.
Law's parents offered help in finding the child. On Tuesday at 2:30 a.m., Law met with his mother at the Oceanside Transit Station in the 200 block of Tremont Street and dropped the child off with Law's mother. Then, deputies reunited the child with his own mother, but did not find Law in that area, sheriff's said.
An Amber Alert had not been issued but the SDSO investigated the event as a valid kidnapping, the sheriff's department said. The overnight search spanned across San Diego County and "outside of the county," according to the sheriff's department.
