Concerned Friends Took La Mesa Girls

Two La Mesa sisters who were reported missing by their mother had been picked up by family friends who were concerned about the children’s welfare, police said Thursday.

Olivia Silva, 7, called Stan and Layola Adams when her 4-year-old sister, Carolyn, became sick sometime after 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, La Mesa police Lt. Allan Joslyn said.

The Adamses picked up the children about 3:30 a.m. and took them to their home in the Clairemont area, Joslyn said. Olivia told the couple that she did not want to live with her mother anymore and instead wanted to stay with an aunt who lives in British Columbia, he said.

Joslyn said the aunt was notified, and the Adamses put the girls on an airplane that arrived shortly after 11 p.m. in Bellingham, Wash., about 80 miles north of Seattle and 18 miles south of the Canadian border.

The aunt had planned to meet the girls at the airport, but sheriff’s deputies in Whatcom County met them instead, then turned them over to Child Protective Services in Washington.

The Adamses told investigators that they were concerned that the girls’ mother, Ester Silva, was not taking good care of them, Joslyn said.

He said they told police that, after watching news accounts of the girls’ disappearance, they called Silva, and that a friend of Silva’s called police. When investigators arrived at the Adams home after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the girls were already gone, he said.

Child-stealing charges will not be filed against the Adamses, Joslyn said; however, child-endangerment charges might be filed against the mother for leaving the children unattended early Wednesday morning.

Ester Silva, 34, and a friend gave conflicting accounts of the time they left the residence on Lake Murray Boulevard, Police Capt. Wayne Beatty said.

Silva told police they left the condominium at 4:30 a.m. to pick up her car from the home of a friend who was repairing it, and that they returned at 5:30 a.m., Beatty said. But the friend told investigators that they left at 2:30 a.m., returning at 5:30 a.m., he said.

On Wednesday, the friend, who refused to give her name, had speculated that whoever took the children was probably someone who was owed money by Silva’s late husband. Anthony Silva was killed in July during a dispute over a drug deal, according to a coroner’s report.

Silva told authorities that, when she and the friend returned, the doors to the residence were still locked and there were no signs of forced entry, Beatty said.

Olivia had let the Adamses in through the back door, Joslyn said.