Last night, February 27, 2007, United
States Marshals and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office found a
nine-year-old child who went missing in Burlington, Iowa in November
2005. The child, Trashanda Sharday Waytes, was found by authorities
at a house near Byhalia, Mississippi.
On February 27, Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Crozier, assigned to the
Mid-South Fugitive Task Force based out of the U.S. Marshals Office
in Memphis, received information from a tipster that the child may
be in Marshall County with her non-custodial mother, Charlotte
Johnson Bassett. Members of the Mid-South Fugitive Task Force, which
is composed of U.S. Marshals, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department
deputies, and Memphis Police officers, traveled to Marshall County.
In Marshall County, they met with members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf
Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Marshall County Sheriff’s
Office to investigate the information Deputy Marshal Crozier had
received. The investigation led them to a house where the child was
found and then to a second location where Bassett was located and
arrested.
In October of 2005, an Iowa court awarded Ron Waytes, Jr. custody of
the Trashanda. On November 20, 2005, biological mother Charlotte
Johnson Bassett abducted Trashanda. Information on the abduction was
posted on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
website. Iowa investigators believed they could possibly be in the
Holly Springs, Mississippi or Memphis, Tennessee area, but had not
been able to locate them in those areas.
Bassett is being held at the Marshall County Jail without bond.
Father, Ron Waytes, Jr. has been contacted and is making
arrangements to get Trashanda back home to Iowa. Trashanda is
currently in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Human
Services.Bassett is charged in Burlington, Iowa with Kidnapping and
Violation of a Custodial Order/Child Custody. |
