Suspect in Columbia AMBER Alert charged with kidnapping, stealing a car
Lucas Geisler
Editor’s note: A source error led to Smith’s name to be initially spelled incorrectly. The name has since been corrected.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The woman at the center of a Columbia AMBER Alert on Thursday is now charged with three felonies.
The Boone County Prosecutor’s Office charged 24-year-old Joy A. Smith with two counts of second-degree kidnapping and tampering with a motor vehicle. Smith is being held in jail without bond.
Smith was arrested near Higginsville in Lafayette County on Thursday afternoon, about an hour west of Columbia. The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued an AMBER Alert for two children in the car with Smith.
New court documents claim Smith drove away from the Welcome Inn on Providence Road in Columbia on Thursday with the 1-year-old and 3-year-old in the car.
A woman claimed she was driving Smith to a relative’s house with the children in the car, and stopped at the Welcome Inn to speak with the children’s father. The woman said Smith drove the car away while she was outside.
Smith is currently in custody at the Lafayette County jail, according to documents.
MSHP released bodycam video of the arrest later on Friday on its Facebook page.
The Columbia Police Department responded to the 911 call around 3:45 p.m. Thursday.
Lieutenant Clint Sinclair said CPD and other law enforcement agencies, like MSHP Troops A and F, used flock cameras to track down Smith.
Sinclair said flock cameras record license plate information and vehicle descriptions, allowing law enforcement to track where the car traveled.
CPD also used emergency GPS locations to track Smith, Sinclair said. Along with other tactics like monitoring social media and checking in at frequent places Smith might go.
According to MSHP, Smith was stopped about 15 minutes after the AMBER Alert.