Mother tried to board MIA flight with kids reported missing from Homestead: MDSO
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office detectives on Tuesday arrested a mother of two children who went missing the day before in Homestead.
Shandrell Willis, 36, was about to board a plane at Miami International Airport with her 6-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son when she was stopped by Special Victims Bureau detectives, the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
The sheriff’s office didn’t say where she planned to take the children.
The children’s father reported them missing Monday after he arrived home in the area of Southwest 128th Avenue and 242nd Street to find his house ransacked — and his son, daughter gone.
The father told deputies that he has full custody of the children, per the sheriff’s office, and didn’t authorize anyone to take them
“The children were recovered in good health and returned to their father,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
As of Wednesday, Willis was in Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of interference with custody by a parent, removal of a child from the state, and violation of a domestic violence injunction.
A judge set bond on the first two charges at $7,500, with the amounts on the other counts pending.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 2:33 PM.
