By Christie L. Hill, The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A woman who triggered an Amber Alert after making frantic claims to police about the alleged abduction of her daughter is now being investigated in the death 13 years ago of another child, police said Thursday.
Authorities in Bell County, Texas, are investigating Jane Woodward of Harrisville, Utah, in the death of one of her other children in 1991, Harrisville Police Chief Max Jackson said.
The child’s death was originally blamed on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but Salt Lake City television station KSTU reported that investigators reopened the case after new reports surfaced involving witnesses who allegedly implicated Woodward.
The Bell County Sheriff’s office refused to release information about the case, Lt. Dave Wical told The Associated Press on Thursday through a secretary.
But it appears their investigation triggered the events that led to the Amber Alert that was issued Tuesday night in Utah.
Against the advice of Texas authorities who informed him of their investigation, Steven Miller, 41, of Killeen, Texas, drove to Utah for the daughter he had with Woodward, Jackson said.
“He had dialogue with the main investigator down there. That investigator told him not to take the child ... and then to work through us. Rather than do that, he basically came and yanked the kid. Things could have and should have gone much smoother,” Jackson said.
Woodward called police in Harrisville, about 35 miles north of Salt Lake, Tuesday night to report that her ex-husband from Killeen, Texas, had taken their 5-year-old daughter, Stephanie Juliette Miller. Woodward said Steven Miller did not have custodial rights to the child.
Police then issued an Amber Alert, which eventually led to Miller being arrested later that night in Rawlins, Wyo., and the girl being placed in foster care in Wyoming.
Though the case involved a custodial dispute, an Amber Alert was issued in Utah because police believed the child might be in danger because of alleged threatening comments Woodward told police her ex-husband had made. Authorities also believed the girl didn’t have her asthma medication, though she did.
The case twisted further after Wyoming investigators determined Woodward and Miller were still legally married and that both parents had equal rights to the child. Authorities also uncovered information about the 1991 death.
The Wyoming Division of Family Services then released Miller from jail, and gave him custody of the child.
“The little girl came with dad and needed to leave with dad,” department spokeswoman Karla McClaren told the AP on Wednesday after the child was released to Miller.
“There’s no way that they could, in good conscience, give the child back to her knowing that these charges were looming,” Jackson said.
Meanwhile, Harrisville police were waiting for Woodward to return home for questioning.
Jackson said she could face possible charges for misleading police about statements she made the night her daughter was taken. He said police wanted to find out if Woodward sincerely did not know the couple’s divorce decree had been set aside, believed that the child did not have her medicine and maintained that Miller had made threatening statements.
“If she believed that at the time, we’ve got no problems with it,” he said.
“We’re watching the house and she hasn’t returned from Wyoming yet,” Jackson said.