SALT LAKE CITY — The mother who triggered a Utah AMBER Alert over the weekend after taking her daughters without permission has been charged with four counts of kidnapping.
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Allison Brimhall, 39, is accused of taking the children from their father's South Jordan home Saturday and driving them to San Diego. After a statewide AMBER Alert was issued early Sunday, the girls were discovered and are safe.
According to court documents, Brimhall was granted supervised visits with the girls after her ex-husband was awarded full custody in June. A caseworker with the Utah Division of Child and Family Services said Brimhall had previously made comments such as, "If I can't have my girls, I will drive them off a cliff with them in the car."
The father told police that he heard his daughters talking around 9 a.m. Saturday before he fell back asleep because he was not feeling well. When he awoke to someone knocking at the door at 11:45 a.m., the girls were not in the house and had not taken their winter coats.
After being unable to find the girls at nearby homes and a park, the father noticed bare footprints "walking away from the house" in the snow.
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Believing his ex-wife had taken their daughters, the father called police.
A few days before taking the children, arrest documents claim that Brimhall, who was living in California, told a friend she was going to Utah for "some dental work."
Hours after the AMBER Alert was issued, a "ping" on Brimhall's phone showed that she was in San Diego in a white Toyota Tacoma she had rented.
Brimhall now faces four first degree felony charges of child kidnapping.
