Amber Alert leads police to missing 4-year-old girl

A statewide search for a 4-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted by her mother in Newport Beach ended Saturday when police took the pair into custody in the Playa Vista area.

Authorities said Symphony Sarah Aiton was found unharmed and taken into protective custody around 2:20 p.m. at the intersection of Lincoln and Jefferson boulevards, where police officers found the vehicle and detained the girl’s mother, said Lt. Paula Kreefft of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Kreefft said the child would probably be returned to her foster parents.

The girl’s mother, Angela Marie Aiton, 34, will be returned to Orange County, where she will face criminal charges, the Newport Beach Police Department said in a statement.

Kreefft said a civilian in the area called police after seeing the black 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was being sought in a missing-child alert, Kreefft said. Police tracked down the Jeep and surrounded it.

Robert Overby, 59, a freelance photographer, said he unknowingly pulled up next to the jeep at a red light and glanced over at the woman. “I think she thought I was an undercover cop,” said Overby. “She had this panic look on her face, and I realized then that it was her and I yelled out, ‘Hey, you’re that woman they’re looking for, pull over.’ ”

Overby said that he was not the civilian who called police, but that he managed to take several pictures of the woman as several police cruisers surrounded the Jeep.

Newport Beach police said the incident began Friday around 6:35 p.m. during a supervised visit. Aiton asked the girl’s foster father if she could take Symphony to the restroom at a restaurant in Fashion Island. When they did not return after 10 minutes, the foster father called police, authorities said. An Amber Alert was issued that evening.

ruben.vives@latimes.com