KIRBYVILLE, Mo.-- Three suspicious incidents on Friday have parents, especially in Taney County, on high alert. It's not clear if they're all connected, but all three involve a mini-van stopping and the driver talking to children.
On quiet Norman road near Kirbyville, Leonna Rasha didn't used to worry about her kids playing in the front yard, but that's now changed. "I've not let them out the front door since," Rasha says.She worries someone was trying to kidnap her children. "They had went to the neighbors and took some food over to the neighbors, and when they came back up the driveway, a van pulled in behind them," says Rasha.
Her six year old son immediately ran inside. "The minute he realized- ok that's not my friend- he took off running to the house and came in the house and hid in the cover and was saying stranger," Rasha says.
The van pulled into the driveway, and Rasha's 13 year old daughter says the woman driving had a small dog on her lap, and she asked if the girl knew where the dog belonged. "She said no and came immediately to the house and I said- what did she do then? She said- she just left," Rasha says.
A second incident involving a boy walking on Hulls Ford Road near Taneyville later that afternoon really raised the red flag. Taney County Sheriff Jimmie Russell says, "The person repeatedly insisted on the child getting in the van with them, and they'd take them on home, and the child finally turned to go the other way, and the van took off."
Both incidents involved a woman in a minivan asking children about a dog. "Whenever they continually question the child, it's very suspicious. When the children run back in the house and the van takes off, yeah- that's very suspicious," Russell says.
It all has parents re-emphasizing an old lesson. "I've went over and over again- you do not talk to strangers," says Rasha.
