GOLDFIELD, NV-- Less than a day before an Amber Alert was issued for three Caldwell children, they were seen by a Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper. He pulled over their mother's car for speeding.
Investigators say Esmerelda, 5, Mirella, 7, and Ubaldo Guerrero-Lopez, 9, were taken by their mother. Bertha Guerrero lost custody of her children in December after she left them with a woman she'd just met.
On Friday, Guerrero picked her children up for a 24-hour visitation period and never returned them to their foster family.
Chuck Allen, a spokesman for the Nevada Highway District, says a trooper pulled over Bertha Guerrero Saturday afternoon around 1 p.m. The trooper said Guerrero was traveling 86 mph in a 70 mph speed zone. She was 14 miles outside of Goldfield.
Allen says when the trooper got to the car he noticed none of the kids were wearing seatbelts. Guerrero also did not have a valid drivers license. She only had an I.D. card from Mexico.
The trooper wrote Guerrero three tickets. She then left, Allen says she was traveling toward Las Vegas. Again, this was two hours before the children were expected at their foster home so the the Amber Alert had not been issued. It was issued Sunday morning.
Allen says there was a woman in the front passenger seat of the car, but it is unclear who she is.
Monday, the FBI said they believe Guerrero and the kids may be in the Phoenix area heading toward Mexico. Guerrero has family living in Mexico and Phoenix.
