Missing Puyallup infant and mother found

A Puyallup woman believed to have absconded with her newborn son to avoid turning him over to state authorities last month is in jail and the child is being checked in a hospital, police said.

“It appears they had driven up and over Blewett Pass and stopped in Cle Elum,” Puyallup police Capt. Scott Engle said.

Cle Elum police, assisted by Washington State Patrol and Kittitas County sheriff’s deputies, arrested Myra Aguilar, 31, and sent her son, Jeshua Taylor, to the hospital.

The driver of the vehicle they were riding in, Aguilar’s mother, was not taken into custody. She might face criminal charges, officials said.

Police and the FBI have been looking for Aguilar and the baby since he was born at a home Aug. 9 and Aguilar’s roommate alerted authorities that the boy might be having health problems because he hadn’t received medical help.

Aguilar is a suspected heroin and methamphetamine user and was fighting the state to keep custody of another one of her children when she became pregnant with Jeshua, officials said.

She refused to tell the state Department of Social and Health Services her due date, court records show.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged Aguilar with custodial interference, second-degree criminal mistreatment and endangerment with a controlled substance.

She is expected to be arraigned Thursday (Sept. 24).

Engle declined to say where Aguilar and the infant have been hiding other than it was in a remote part of the state.

Police initially believed the two might be camping in the woods near Maple Valley or hiding in the Okanogan County town of Oroville.

”We were aware of some information for a while now of where the family may have been but were unsuccessful in locating them,” Engle said.

The baby’s presumed father, Levi Taylor, 35, is still missing. Police said he might have been traveling with Aguilar and their son.

Taylor is being sought on unrelated warrants for third-degree assault, communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and for failing to register as a sex offender.

Child Protective Services now has custody of Jeshua, who did not appear to be injured.

Aguilar might have been sick and thinking about turning herself in, police said.

She has been fighting in King County for custody of an older son since 2011, when he was born addicted to methadone.

Aguilar said she has been a drug addict for 20 years, court records show.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 7:09 AM with the headline "Missing Puyallup infant and mother found."