MOWER COUNTY, Minn. - Authorities have arrested a Minnesota mother who was on the run, and have located four of her five children she is accused of kidnapping.
Police say 39-year-old Izetta Cooley and the four children were found at a home in Moorhead Tuesday after officers executed a search warrant shortly before 11 a.m. Cooley was arrested on a felony kidnapping warrant from Mower County. She's being held in the Clay County Jail.
Four children are now in the custody of social services. A fifth child, 16-year-old Morgan Cooley, is still unaccounted for.
Izetta Cooley was charged with kidnapping on Monday. A criminal complaint issued in Mower County Court details four felony counts against the 39-year-old Cooley, ranging from kidnapping to deprivation of custody rights.
Cooley's husband, 44-year-old Miguel Cooley of Moorhead, is accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Gabriel Perez outside a McDonald's restaurant in Fargo, North Dakota, on Sept. 23. Miguel Cooley was later arrested in southeastern Minnesota after he brought Mateo, Mollycia and Maryssa Cooley to a residence near Rose Creek, Minnesota.
Prosecutors allege that Cooley drove to her brother-in-law's home in Rose Creek the night of Sept. 29, knocked on his door and called to two of her children (ages 11 and 10, who had been placed with him in a foster situation). The homeowner, who had been designated as a foster parent, said Cooley had her hands in her pocket and he did not want to touch her, fearing the situation would escalate.
The foster parent told deputies an older child of Cooley's gathered the belongings of all three kids and they left with their mother, defying a court order issued in Clay County Sept. 27.
