Missing Garden Grove 3-Year-Old Found By CHP Officers In Cajon Pass, Mother In Custody

GARDEN GROVE (CBSLA) — A 911 call from a grandmother sparks an Amber Alert for a missing 3-year-old girl taken by her mother who was not supposed to be anywhere near the child.

The child, Josephine Lujan, and her mother, Christina Lujan, were found at about 7 p.m. Friday night headed southbound on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass.

Garden Grove police are calling the Lujan case a success story and proof that Amber Alerts keep children safe.

"The system works, and with that we had thousands of eyes out there looking for this child, and it happened on the 15 Freeway," Lt. Carl Whitney with the Garden Grove Police Department said.
"We had two or three callers who called in after they spotted the vehicle."

It was those thousands of eyes that police said led them to the 3-year-old and her mother after she was kidnapped from her grandmother's house. Police said Lujan had been barred by court order from seeing her daughter, but the child's grandmother allowed the mother to see Josephine this afternoon — before she realized they were both gone.

"Because of the holidays, I think grandma allowed her daughter to come over to see the granddaughter, which is against the court order that says mom is supposed to stay away," Whitney said. "So we have to look into that."

According to police, Lujan suffers from mental health problems and has been known to carry a knife on her.

Lujan will be booked on suspicion of parental kidnapping. Social workers will decide whether Josephine, who was uninjured, will get to go home with her grandmother.