Missing Clay County children found in Florida grocery store

HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. (KCTV) - Two missing children from Clay County, Missouri, were found in a grocery store in Highland Springs, Florida.

Officers with the Highland Springs Police Department found the missing 12-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl with their non-custodial mother shopping on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.

The mother, 35-year-old Kristi Nicole Gilley, was detained and arrested on an active kidnapping warrant according to the High Springs Police Department.

The children had been missing since March 15, 2022. They were turned over to the Florida Department of Children and Families Services and will be reunited with their birth family according to the police.

They were found Wednesday when police conducted a routine vehicle tag check and found that the vehicle owner was a fugitive. The trio were shopping in a Winn-Dixie grocery store with disguised identities, according to police.

A felony kidnapping warrant had been issued for Gilley on July 13, 2022.