PHOENIX (AP) - Half an hour after putting her two children to bed, a Phoenix mother discovered they were gone. Frantic and fearful they had been kidnapped, she called police, who spotted her car near her apartment and tried to pull it over.
After it swerved and crashed into a pole, police discovered the driver was the woman's 8-year-old son, and her 6-year-old daughter was a front-seat passenger.
The girl died early Thursday of injuries suffered in Wednesday night's crash, while her brother suffered an ankle injury that didn't appear serious, police said.
Police identified the girl as Aaliyah Felder. They said her seatbelt wasn't fastened and the air bag in front of her didn't deploy.
Police did not release the names of the 24-year-old mother or her son.
Sgt. Steve Martos said police did not know some details about what happened, including what prompted the children to go on the drive and how they got the car keys.
He said the investigation was continuing. Investigators didn't immediately speak with the boy.
"We want to wait," Martos said. However, he added, "it doesn't appear that we're looking at it from a criminal standpoint."
After the crash, two patrol officers ran up to the crashed car, "thinking it's a kidnap, that there's a bad guy in there," Martos said.
Instead, they found the children in their pajamas and the girl seriously injured.
The crash occurred only a block from the apartment complex where the family lived, and the mother ran over after seeing the police activity.
She was visibly distraught after discovering the car and children belonged to her, Martos said. "It was a horrible and tragic moment for her," he said.
Martos said the mother had bathed the children and put them to bed at 9:30 p.m., then went to bed herself at 10 p.m., only to get up a short time later and find them missing, with the front door open and her car gone.
She knocked on doors in the neighborhood and called police.
Just minutes earlier, police received at least two 911 calls from people who reported seeing the car driving in the area.
One of the callers said the car had struck a fence and then driven off. Another caller said it appeared the car was being driven by a child.
Two responding patrol officers spotted the vehicle that crashed "almost instantly" after police turned on their emergency lights, Martos said. The police cars did not have their sirens on, he said.
From what police have pieced together, it appeared the children drove south about 3 miles from their home and then backtracked, Martos said.