UPDATE: The amber alert has been canceled. The children were found.

A Texas Amber Alert has been issued for 3 young children from Austin after they were allegedly taken by 31-year-old Sheries Hernandez, local officials say. Anyone with information is urged to call 911 immediately.

The children were last seen in the 100 block of Palma Circle in Austin at around 5 p.m. on Sunday, according to the amber alert. Specific details about the circumstances were not immediately released.

The first child has been identified as Ninel Anseume, a 10-year-old Hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes, standing 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 80 pounds.

The second child is Abraham Anseume, a 4-year-old Hispanic male with brown hair and brown eyes, standing 3 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 44 pounds.

The third child is Elsi Anseume, a 2-year-old Hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes, standing 2 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 31 pounds.

The suspect, Sherles Hernandez, is described as a 31-year-old Hispanic male with black hair and black eyes, standing 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds.

Hernandez is believed to have taken the children in a silver 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander with Texas license plate number TWL2922.

Anyone who sees the suspect or the victim is urged to call 911 immediately, or call the Austin Police Department at (512) 974-5210 if you have any other information that could help investigators.

This is an amber alert. Please check back or follow @BNONews on Twitter as details become available. If you want to receive breaking news alerts by email, click here to sign up. You can also like us on Facebook by clicking here.

AUSTIN, Texas — Tucked away at the Casa de Luz Village in South Austin are standalone rooms separated from nature’s ambiance. One of them is dark, filled with people chatting while they wait for Monica Landois to start the music.

Landois rents the space to provide the fitness dance class to her students, though it might be more accurate to call them followers or friends. 

“I love bringing joy to people and I love bringing joy through movement,” Landois said.

After class, Landois sits down next to a bouquet of sunflowers just outside the dance space reflecting on life. She’s a first-generation Austinite and graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos. There she received her bachelor’s in geography natural resources and environmental studies. She minored in business Spanish.

“I thought I would do something with environmental investigations and maybe I could help the Latin community and bridge gaps with language,” she said.

Out of college, Landois accepted a job with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. She remembers her parents were thrilled when she shared the news. 

Landois had a short gap between graduation and starting her new job. That’s when she discovered Zumba classes. Zumba is described as a group exercise class that blends rhythmic Latin music with high-intensity cardio dance moves according to its website.

Instructors noticed her ability to keep up with the class and suggested she audition to be an instructor. 

“It’s one of those things that was so random that kind of just fell in my lap,” Landois said. 

Her first class had more than 50 people. 

“There was so much community. I would meet so many people from different walks of life,” she said. 

As her community grew, she would discover even more opportunities, including a contract position with the City of Austin, to teach Zumba classes. Landois says she got paid significantly more for 45 minutes of her time than she did at the TCEQ for the same amount of time. There were several of what Landois calls “aha” moments along the way. 

“That’s where the wheels started turning,” Landois recalls.

Eventually Landois got married and welcomed her first child, a baby boy. At this point, she was trying to gather how she could be a present mother, work her government job with an added commute and teach fitness classes. By the time her son was around 4 months old, she decided to quit the TCEQ and focus on her dance classes.

“Even though I like this job, I can’t sustain being a mom and working those hours,” she recalled thinking. 

Unfortunately, her then-husband doesn’t understand what she’s trying to do. 

“Sometimes your partner or your parents or people closest to you don’t really see your vision because they’re not in your shoes,” Landois said. “They don’t have the knowledge you have within the spaces that you’re in.” 

Landois separated from her partner. Culturally, her parents didn’t approve of the divorce. But Landois pressed on, determined to provide for both of her kids. She had since brought a second boy into the world. 

“At any point you can say, ‘I’m not going to listen to the noise. Even though I’m in this space, I can still walk my path’,” Landois said. 

Landois admits the path wasn’t always easy to travel. Two weeks after going all in on herself, the pandemic swept across the state, closing businesses deemed nonessential. Landois had already shot dance videos for Amazon’s Prime Video service, so she was at least a step ahead, ready to provide virtual classes to anyone who needed movement. 

“I learned about resilience, having grit and how it’s so worth it,” Landois said. “As soon as you feel like giving up and decide not to, those are the moments.” 

The number of hours she works week to week can change, but recently she’s been able to manage on fewer than 20 hours a week while raising her two boys. She’s proud to share she didn’t miss their first steps or their first words. 

Landois just recently trained two more instructors to provide more classes for her community. She’s a motivational speaker, sharing her mom-preneur story with other women. She also gives dance lessons to couples interested in learning new styles of dance. But most importantly, she’s happy.  

Sophomore punter Ian Ratliff earned his first start and collegiate minutes in the 2024 Red River Rivalry game.

Until this weekend, true freshman Michael Kern had punted each game, with 11 punts through five games, averaging 42.8 yards per punt and a total of 471 yards. Kern was listed as questionable in both Wednesday and Thursday’s injury reports, upgrading to probable on Friday.

“We think (he’s) the best punter in the country,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said to the Austin-American Statesman on signing day. “We think this guy’s got a skill set for the future.”

Though he was taken off the injury report on game day, Kern did not see game time against the Sooners, instead, it was Ratliff who had his first chance to prove himself.

The Longhorns weren’t forced to punt too many times, but in the three attempts, Ratliff recorded 133 yards. The Sooners, on the other hand, were forced to punt six times.

Ratliff averaged 44.3 yards per punt, nearing Kern’s records of 45.5 and 45.75 against UTSA and ULM, and the sophomore managed one 50+ yard attempt.

Assumedly, Kern will resume his starting duties next week vs. Georgia, but it is certainly comforting for the Longhorns to know they have two quality legs at their disposal.

“I’d like the guy to hit the ball and punt the ball directionally well. I think that’s something right away that we look for,” assistant head coach Jeff Banks said to the Austin-American Statesman about what he expects from a punter. “From a technique standpoint, if he can be two steps and get the ball off quicker, I’d like that. That’s probably where we start is just form-wise, getting him to be compact, and to be able to strike the ball the same every time.”

It is never the case in which fans get excited when their team is forced to punt, but with Ratliff’s solid performance, Texas fans won’t need to stress too much if the moment arises where he is called on again.