1-Year-Old Florida Girl Found Miles Away After She Was Missing for More Than a Month

A 1-year-old girl who vanished in Florida in early December has been found safe more than a month later, authorities say.

Anastasia Mason was reported missing on Dec. 2 after she was last seen in Pensacola with her father, Thomas Zachariah Mason, and her mother, Jami Makala Owens, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) in a news release shared on Facebook.

In an update posted Thursday, Jan. 15, the ECSO said Anastasia had been “safely located” in Uriah, Alabama. Officials did not release additional details about where she had been or how she was found.

After Anastasia was located, Owens, 30, was arrested, the ECSO confirmed. Authorities did not immediately disclose her charges. WFLA reported that she previously had two active outstanding warrants for child abuse and petty theft.

The ECSO also posted mugshots of Owens and Mason, 36, though it was not immediately clear whether Mason was arrested or faces charges. As of Jan. 17, neither Owens nor Mason appeared in the ECSO’s inmate records, and it is not known whether either has legal representation who could comment on their behalf.

What investigators previously said

In December, officers went to a hotel for a report of a possible overdose and found Owens “acting strangely in the lobby” and reportedly unable to locate her daughter, North Escambia and WFLA reported, citing the ECSO.

“We got a call about an individual who was potentially suffering from an overdose. We get there, and it’s actually the mother of the one-year-old,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told WFLA.

Authorities later located Anastasia in a hotel room with a man, police said. Investigators also reported finding “a quantity of narcotics” inside the room.

Owens was taken to a hospital, and Anastasia was later reported missing, according to the reports. North Escambia reported that investigators believed Thomas — who shares joint custody of the child with Owens — may have taken her. It was not clear whether the man found in the hotel room was Thomas or someone else.

Police later obtained an arrest warrant for Owens, North Escambia reported, but by the time deputies arrived at the hospital, she had already been released.

The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) opened an investigation after Anastasia and both parents were reported missing, WFLA said.

“We think that there’s a possibility that the child’s still with the father, but quite frankly, we don’t know where the child is at this point, and we really want to get the child for that assessment,” Sheriff Simmons told the outlet before Anastasia was ultimately found.