A 6-year-old girl, who was kidnapped over a month ago, has been found safe after a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper stopped two men on the road for a traffic violation.

The Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) shared in a Facebook post on Saturday, March 22, that a trooper with their criminal interdiction unit conducted a traffic stop on an SUV finding two men in their 60s inside along with a little girl in the backseat.

KHP said that the driver of the car was discovered to have had a criminal history that included “homicide and numerous weapons violations over the years” and the passenger “had a warrant for his arrest from another state for kidnapping a 6-year-old girl just over a month prior.”

“After the trooper and a deputy from a local sheriff’s office quickly secured both the driver and passenger, the trooper safely removed the little girl from the vehicle,” KHP said in their post.

They shared that the 6-year-old — who was not identified — had been “coached” by one of the men to give “a false name and date of birth” in order to “keep the adult out of jail,” KHP said. Eventually, troopers were able to calm her down and get her to “tell him her real name.”

“She was the kidnapping victim, who had been with this suspect for over a month on the run,” KHP said. “Thankfully the girl was unharmed, and the men were taken into custody.”

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KHP provided two photos of the black SUV stopped on the side of a highway, including one that showed a man putting his hands above his head next to the vehicle. In a second photo, a little girl could be seen talking to a man right outside the car.

In an update on their initial post, the KHP thanked people “for the outpouring of support” for their division and for the trooper involved.” They wrote, “This is an incredible story that highlights the unpredictable nature of a trooper’s job and the real impact they can have on people’s lives.”

KHP also noted that it “received many requests for more details of the stop,” but were unable to “release any further details” in order to “protect the identity of the child and integrity of open cases.” 

Authorities shared that they are continuing their investigation into the incident.

According to the Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center (CCPSC), a child goes missing or is abducted in the U.S. “every 40 seconds.” The CCPSC said that “approximately 840,000 children are reported missing each year.”

The AMBER Alert system is a notification system which alerts citizens in all 50 states in the U.S. of a missing child. According to its website, “1,221 children were successfully recovered through the AMBER Alert system” and “at least 195 children were rescued because of wireless emergency alerts,” as of December 6, 2024.