Kidnaped Boy Found Safe in Arizona; Relative Arrested

A 6-year-old boy who was abducted from here was found in Arizona on Thursday, and a relative was arrested on suspicion of kidnaping, authorities said.

An anonymous call alerted the Graham County Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday night that Daniel James Lans was being kept in the Safford City area, more than 150 miles east of where his natural mother lives, in Mesa, said Sgt. Charles Morris.

Daniel, who has been in the legal custody of his grandmother--who lives in Cypress--since infancy and who has a serious asthma condition, “seemed quite content” when officers found him at an aunt’s home in Graham County, Morris said.

“He misses his grandmother but seems well taken care of,” Morris said.

Daniel has been placed in a protective foster-care home in Arizona until Cypress police and the FBI can return him to his grandmother, Janet Lans.

Daniel and Lans were leaving their home for Daniel’s school about 8:15 a.m. Monday when a man grabbed Daniel and took him away in a car driven by another man, police said. Lans suffered minor bruises trying to prevent the kidnaping.

Authorities believe the two abductors were Aaron Espinoza--married to Nancy Espinoza, Daniel’s mother--and Aaron’s younger brother, Michael Espinoza, 21, Cypress Police Lt. Phillip Satterfield said.

On Thursday night, deputies arrested Michael Espinoza at a relative’s home in the area, Morris said. An arrest warrant was also issued for Aaron Espinoza, who remains at large.

The aunt at whose house the boy was found is not being charged.

Officials have not been able to contact Nancy Espinoza or her husband. Telephone calls to their home in Mesa went unanswered Thursday.

Apparently, the kidnapers went to the Safford City area “for safe haven, hoping to lay low until the parents” could start legal proceedings to reclaim the child, Morris said.

The boy’s family in Cypress said Thursday that Aaron Espinoza is not Daniel’s natural father.

“Nancy was eight months pregnant with Daniel when she met Mr. Espinoza,” said her sister, Kimberly Fritz.

“We don’t know who Daniel’s natural father is. . . . Nancy was going to put him up for adoption, and my parents begged her to give him to them. That’s the reason why my mother’s had legal custody of him since birth.”