Woman Surrenders Grandson, 6, Four Years After His Abduction

A Valencia woman gave up her 6-year-old grandson, four years after he was abducted, after seeing his picture on a supermarket milk carton, authorities said Friday.

The child, Justin Murphy, was reunited with his mother, while his grandmother, Myrna Montegna, was arrested on a bench warrant and booked for investigation of felony child stealing, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Edgington said. She was being held without bail.

The child was taken in August, 1981, from the Canyon Country home of his mother, Sheri Ann Lyles, who was 22 at the time, Edgington said.

“Our investigators arrested Mrs. Montegna in January, 1982, for child stealing. However, the boy was not found at the time,” Edgington said. “She later failed to show up for court proceedings, and a felony bench warrant was issued for her arrest in June, 1982, with no bail.”

He said Montegna recently saw a picture of the missing boy on an Alta-Dena Dairy milk carton.

“The grandmother then decided to surrender herself and the boy and she contacted the NBC studios in Burbank, where she surrendered herself,” Edgington said. “Sgt. Bill Griffith, who headed the investigation, went to the studio and arrested her and took the boy into protective custody. The mother was located and the boy has been returned to her.”

Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles), who is coordinating the private campaign to place the photographs of missing children in every California home through such common items as milk cartons and shopping bags, said three children have been found in the first month of the campaign.