Paislee Shultis: Everything we know about her disappearance and how she was found hidden in a secret room
Six-year-old girl found hidden underneath staircase at grandfather’s home in upstate New York
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Little Paislee Shultis had not been seen alive since she disappeared from the home of her legal guardians in July 2019.
The youngster was abducted at the age of four from the property in Cayuga Heights, New York, after being removed from the care of her biological but “non-custodial” parents, Kim Cooper and Kirk Shultis.
Now they have been charged with hiding her away from the authorities for nearly three years.
Police moved in on Valentine’s Day after receiving a tip that the missing girl was with her parents at a home in Saugerties, which is more than 100 miles north of New York City and 130 miles east from where she was taken.
After obtaining a warrant, officers arrived at the property, where the owner denied any knowledge of the girl’s whereabouts, saying he had not seen her since she was reported missing.
It has not been made public why the couple lost custody of their daughter, or the identity of her legal guardians.
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And it is also not known who reported the girl’s location to law enforcement.
Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra toldThe Daily Freeman that the parents are believed to have abducted Paislee while her older sister was at school.
Their parents had lost custody of both her and her older sister in 2019 and the very day Paislee vanished was the day that authorities were due to take custody of the children and hand them over to the legal guardian, he said.
Paislee’s sister was at school at the time of her sister’s abduction and went to live with the guardian as planned.
Meanwhile, investigators believe Paislee was taken directly to her grandfather’s home by her abductors and had been kept there ever since.
Officers had previously visited the house and been allowed inside to search it, but had never found the hiding place that Paislee was placed in under a set of stairs to the basement.
Police say they had searched the property a number of times, but the residents had “denied any knowledge of the little girl’s whereabouts.”
“During some of the follow ups to the Fawn Road location, authorities were permitted limited access into the residence to look around for the child, by both Kirk Shultis Sr and Jr. ... knowing the child and her abductor were hidden within the house and would not be found,” police said in a statement.
Officers had been told that the girl, who is now six, had been taken to Pennsylvania by her mother, but all leads in the case went cold until Monday night.
In a statement, police said that Saugerties Detective Erik Thiele had “noticed something about the staircase leading from the back of the residence into the basement of the house that caught his attention.”
The detective then shone a light into the stairs and were ablate see a “pair of tiny feet.”
“After removing several more steps, the child and her abductor were discovered within. The space was small, cold, and wet.”
The police chief said that the six-year-old had her own bedroom inside the home but that the hiding place appeared to have been used frequently whenever authorities came searching for her.
The little girl stayed silent for around four hours during Monday’s search while she and her mother were holed up under the stairwell, he said.
Paislee has since been reunited with her older sister and their legal guardian.
Chief Sinagra said the little girl remembered her older sister and that officers had taken her for a McDonalds on the way to reunite them because she said she had not had any fast food for a long time.
Police said that Paislee does not appear to have been mistreated by her family members and is in good health.
She was examined at a nearby hospital and was determined to be in good health.
“Number one, this little girl didn’t have an opportunity to go to school. We are pretty certain that she probably wasn’t receiving proper medical attention,” said Chief Sinagra.
“Obviously, the family couldn’t just take her to a doctor because she was a reported missing person. The other concern is you have a child that doesn’t write or read because they didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. They will now.”
Paislee’s father, Kirk Shultis Jr and her grandfather, Kirk Shultis Sr, have been charged with one count each of custodial interference in the first degree and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.
Her mother, Kimberly Cooper, was charged with custodial interference in the second degree and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.
She was remanded into custody on an outstanding warrant issued by Ulster County Family Court.
Kirk Shultis Jr and Kirk Shultis Sr, were released on their own recognizance and orders of protection were issued against all three.
All three appeared in court on Wednesday where they refused to answer any questions and Ms Cooper hid her face from reporters under a blanket.
Ms Cooper was given her next court date of 2 March while the Mr Shultis Jr and Sr will next appear in court on 27 April.
None of the three has been charged with kidnapping and Saugerties police say additional arrests are pending.
Neighbours were stunned that the missing girl had been in the home the whole time.
“I’m just shocked, because they seemed like regular people,” Annette Wrolsen told CBSNewYork.
Chief Sinagra said, while he doesn’t know why the children were removed from the parents’ care initially, he hopes that there could be a time in the future where they are all reunited.
“I am hoping that some time in future that the family has learned from this, and that with proper services put in place by county social services, by the Ulster County Family Child Advocacy Center, and by CPS, that eventually the family will gain the right to actually get the custody of the kids, which is ultimately what we’re looking for,” he told CBS Local.
However, he said these hopes may be scuppered because of the parents’ alleged actions in abducting and hiding Paislee.
“If they had complied with that court order two years ago, depending on what the deficiency was within the household that caused a judge to remove those children, there’s a good possibility that they could’ve take corrective action, and today they would have full custody of those kids,” he said.
“Now, I don’t know again what that deficiency was, so that may or may not be the case.”