DECATUR, Ga. (WXIA) -- Police sources tell 11Alive News that two missing children have been found safe, but the man suspected of taking the children remains at large.
The children, 3-year-old Jalen Mattison and 1-year-old Amari Mattison, had been reported missing early Wednesday morning. Their mother, 24-year-old Ashley Mattison, said a man helping her when her car broke down on Interstate 20 near Wesley Chapel Road in DeKalb County had driven off with the children.
PHOTOS | Missing children from DeKalb County
Ashley Mattison said that as she made arrangements to have her Volvo towed, the suspect drove away with her children. Police said she did not know the suspect.
In a Wednesday afternoon news conference, DeKalb County Police spokesperson Mekka Parish said the suspect had taken the children to an apartment on South Hairston Road between 2 am and 4 am Wednesday. Parish said he left the children with women at the apartment there who he "sort of knew" to baby sit, before taking off.
Parish said the women saw news reports about the missing children at noon Wednesday and put two-and-two together regarding the children they were watching. Parish said the women took the children to DeKalb County Magistrate Court. Workers there called DeKalb County Police to take custody of the children.
The Department of Family and Children's Services has been brought into the case, due to evidence, police said, regarding the care of the children.
Earlier, a detective source told 11Alive's Paul Crawley that Ashley Mattison had no fixed address, and had been living from hotel to hotel.
The suspect, who police say is a kidnapper, is still at large. Police are actively searching for him and his late model green Jeep Cherokee.
They said the suspect is a black male in his 30s, about 5-feet-10-inches tall, with a medium build. Police said he was wearing a black stocking cap and a plaid button-down shirt. The suspect's vehicle is described as a forest green 2000-to-2005 model Jeep Cherokee.