The alert for Jennifer and Jessica Burns was issued early Friday morning. Here’s what we know.
MCKINNEY, Texas — A 60-year-old woman is accused of taking her two granddaughters, and the girls’ father is in custody on kidnapping charges after the children were last seen during a Child Protective Services-supervised visit Thursday evening, police said.
The incident prompted an AMBER Alert early Friday.
Jessica Burns, 9, and Jennifer Burns, 6, who are sisters, were last seen in the area of 320 North Central Expressway in McKinney shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday, according to the alert and police.
The two missing girls were last seen at a restaurant at that location, where they were “having a supervised visit with their non-custodial father, along with CPS, who had temporary custody of the girls,” a police news release said.
CPS told WFAA that the girls’ mother died, but didn’t disclosed when she passed.
Jame Burns, 60, who police said is the girls’ paternal grandmother, was named as the suspect on the alert. McKinney police said Jame Burns is believed to be driving a 2009 Black Ford Escape with Texas license plate MTC6093.
Jame Burns and the two girls had not been located as of 5 p.m. Friday.
In a 10:30 a.m. police update Friday, officials said the girls’ father, Justin Burns, was believed to be involved in the incident and was arrested and charged with two felony counts of kidnapping. He was in the custody of the Collin County Sheriff’s Office on Friday morning.
The CPS worker called 911 on Thursday night to report the girls were missing, triggering the AMBER Alert, officials said.
Officials said Jame Burns has a criminal history; in 2005, she was charged with burglary of a habitation. The case ended in a plea, according to court records.
Todd Shapiro, who is a Collin County attorney, is not connected to this case. But, he has taken on a number of CPS cases. He tells WFAA supervised visits are just part of the path to reunifying the family.
“Whatever family law courts decides is the right plan it usually comes from the plans that CPS puts in place,” said Shapiro.
Supervised visits are some of the first steps before reunification in the event the parents have lost custody of the children. CPS would not elaborate on the custodial cases of Jessica and Jennifer Burns. Shapiro says supervised visits will ultimately graduate to unsupervised visits. Supervised visits come with strict parameters set by a judge about when and where to meet. It’s unclear if all the parameters were followed on Thursday.
“Somebody was there watching this dinner that had to have vetted or done a background check on grandma and on dad and was okay with them getting together. My question is, how did they turn their back? How did they not see what was going on for enough time to allow grandma to get both girls to get in a vehicle and abduct them?” asked Shapiro.
Watch the update from police at 10:30 a.m.:
WFAA reached out to CPS for more information but did not immediately hear back.
The alert was issued around 1 a.m. Friday. McKinney is north of Dallas in Collin County.
Law enforcement believed the girls were “in grave or immediate danger,” the alert said. McKinney police said, “we have reason to believe they are in serious danger.”
Police were working with the FBI to find the girls.
Jessica Burns, 4 feet, 10 inches tall and about 90 pounds, was last seen wearing dark-frame glasses, a red long-sleeve shirt with black sleeves, and blue jeans.
Jennifer Burns, 4 feet tall and 60 pounds, was last seen wearing purple-framed glasses, a light blue shirt with sparkle designs, and blue jeans.
Jame Burns, 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 230 pounds, was last seen wearing black clothing, the alert said.
More information about the grandmother’s and CPS’s involvement in the situation and how the incident happened was not released. Anyone with information about their location is asked to call the McKinney Police Department at 972-547-2700 or call 911 immediately. Anyone with tips can also call 972-547-2758.