US Marshals recover missing child in Gypsum; mother arrested, charged with kidnapping
The U.S. Marshals Service announced on Friday that 43-year-old Tina Medina was arrested and charged in Gypsum following a nearly six-month-long child-abduction investigation, with the child recovered safely and reunited with its legal guardian.
Medina is the biological mother of the 10-year-old child, who is alleged to have been abducted from their father, the sole legal custodial guardian. The child went missing from the San Diego area in December 2024.
“Medina had been in a custody dispute with the child’s father before courts in California awarded him sole custody,” the U.S. Marshals Service reported on Friday. “Soon after, Medina fled California with the child and was suspected to be residing with her parents in Colorado.”
Investigators in San Diego relayed that information to the U.S. Marshals Colorado Violent Offender Task Force in Grand Junction, and Deputy U.S. Marshals and Task Force officers from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation began a local investigation into Medina and the child’s whereabouts.
“It was quickly learned Medina was actively taking steps to mislead or throw off law enforcement to where they were residing,” the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release.
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On Tuesday, a multi-agency team was assembled, including law enforcement officers from the U.S. Marshals Service in both Grand Junction and Denver, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, and the Colorado State Patrol.
“The team set up surveillance on the Gypsum residence and was able to make contact with a relative of Medina’s,” the U.S. Marshals Service reported. “Soon after, Medina was taken into custody, and the child was safely recovered.”
Medina was charged with fugitive of justice-out of state kidnapping and booked at the Eagle County jail, where she is being held on a $1,000,000 bond. She has a hearing scheduled for July 31 at the Eagle County courthouse.
