Boy, 2, Returned After Alleged Kidnapping

PALMDALE — A 2-year-old boy allegedly kidnapped by his mother from his grandparents’ house six months ago returned home Thursday night after he saw a television newscast about his own disappearance.

Justice Stewart--who had been placed in foster care with a Carson couple--saw his grandparents in the news report on KCBS-TV Thursday and yelled to alert his caretakers, who contacted police.

“We have an open case,” Victoria Pipkin-Lane, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, said Friday, adding that a formal reunification procedure by the county is in progress.

Pipkin-Lane said many details on the case cannot be revealed because of privacy laws--including how the boy wound up in foster care--but added that the boy was happy and safe at home.

Justice was kidnapped July 5 by Roberta Jackson, an alleged crack-cocaine addict, from the Lancaster home of his grandparents during a supervised visit, according to authorities.

The grandparents, who now live in Palmdale, are the legal guardians of the child, Pipkin-Lane said.

A few months after the kidnapping, Jackson was arrested on suspicion of prostitution by officers from the Rampart station of the Los Angeles Police Department, authorities said.

Jackson would not reveal to officers the whereabouts of her son--who ended up in foster care later, his identity unknown to child-welfare authorities searching for him, authorities said.

Thursday, as the boy watched the newscast, he recognized the two people on the television screen and began to yell.

A few hours later the boy and his grandparents were reunited.