GREAT FALLS — On Monday, an AMBER Alert was issued on behalf of the Great Falls Police Department after a non-custodial mother and her boyfriend removed her two children from Whittier Elementary School.
All four were found a few hours later, and the children were not harmed. Isabella Martinez had her parental rights terminated last month because of suspected drug use; she and her boyfriend Davin Dahl have now been charged with custodial interference, and she has also been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of children because she reportedly had smoked meth in the presence of the children. The two children are now in the custody of the Department of Family Services (DFS).
According to a spokesperson for DFS, the agency had not notified the school of the custody status change when Martinez picked up her kids Monday. He said staff members, "have numerous responsibilities," but work very hard to keep kids safe.
Great Falls Public Schools superintendent Tom Moore said the district and DFS are working together to figure out how they can learn from this. "There's some responsibility on families' parts to do the right thing. There's a responsibility that parents have for their children, and grandparents have for their (grand)children, so I think the lesson to be learned here is parents need to be responsible,” said Moore.
He said he has not spoken to any of the children’s family members in this specific case. “It was the timing of all of it. I don’t think there’s anybody really at fault here. It’s just the timing and the situation…The thing that’s important to know is that the system worked well,” said Moore. “The school was able to notify the authorities quickly, authorities were able to get an Amber Alert out very quickly and the community rallied around that.”
When asked to clarify his comment about timing, he referred to the fact that school had just started the week before.
“We had school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The timing of when DFS took their action with the children, removing them from their parent’s home,” Moore said.
When asked if changes will be made to procedures to prevent this from happening again, the DFS said "if it's appropriate” and reiterated that the department and school district are working together to review the incident.
- AMBER Alert canceled, 2 Great Falls children found safe
- Martinez and Dahl charged in connection with AMBER Alert
- Dahl charged with sexual assault of a child
(SEPTEMBER 1) Davin Lee Dahl and Isabella Savannah Martinez have been charged after they reportedly abducted her two children from a school in Great Falls on Monday. The incident sparked a state-wide AMBER Alert.
Court documents say that at about 3:10 p.m., an officer was dispatched to a Great Falls residence to assist child-welfare personnel. The officer was told that Martinez took her children from Whittier Elementary School earlier in the day and was not allowed to do so, as the Department of Family Services had custody of the two children, Ezekiel and Savannah Gonzales.
Both children had been removed from Martinez's care earlier in the month for her narcotics use, according to court documents.
The officer and DFS staff contacted neighbors and asked them what vehicle belongs to Martinez, and they said she drives a blue van, which was parked out front, and that her boyfriend (Dahl) drives a Cadillac car. The Cadillac was not parked outside.
An officer went to to the school and reviewed video surveillance from the time the children were picked up. The detective said that Martinez arrived in theblue Cadillac at approximately 1:17 pm. Martinez was the driver and she got out of the car and walked into the school. Dahl got out of the vehicle when Martinez did, but ducked down on the driver's side while she was inside.
The video showed Martinez with both children "leaving in a hurry." Once Martinez, Dahl, and the two children were in the vehicle, she sped off.
An AMBER Alert was issued by the Montana Department of Justice, and within an hour, the Great Falls Police Department learned that the vehicle was in Vaughn at the Conoco gasstation, and confirmed that the children were in the vehicle. Cascade County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched and pulled the vehicle over on Highway 200 after several people called to report seeing the car drive away at a high rate of speed.
Officers found the two children unharmed in the back seat. Martinez and Dahl were taken into custody, and have both been charged with felony custodial interference.
Dahl's criminal history includes sexual related crimes, obstructing charges, and various other offenses, according to court documents (October 2018: Dahl charged with sexual assault of a child)
We have a reporter working on talking with Great Falls Public School district officials about policies regarding checking students out from school, and will update you when we get more details.
