Allegedly abducted Alberta sisters Talisha and Taya Meisel have been found safe in B.C.'s Lower Mainland and their mother is in RCMP custody.
Mounties confirmed public tips led them to a campground in Boston Bar, where they found the family and arrested 48-year-old Trina Meisel without incident on Wednesday afternoon.
She is facing two counts of abduction.
The update came shortly after RCMP revealed they’d received new information the children, ages six and 12, could be in serious danger.
Meisel, the girls' biological mother, is accused of snatching them from their Vulcan, Alta. elementary school on Monday morning.
She does not have legal guardianship of the children and court documents show she’s facing dozens of unrelated charges, including one count of setting a trap to cause harm.
Insp. Tony Hamori said an Amber Alert wasn’t issued immediately because investigators were not aware of a clear risk to the children's well-being early in the case.
“The information came to light this morning,” Hamori said.
The investigation expanded into B.C. on Monday, when police got a tip that Meisel was just west of the Alta. border in Golden.
Mounties later learned she may have been agitated due to a recent custody decision against her.
“Our investigation has led us to believe her behaviour could be very erratic as a result of her frustration with that custody order,” Hamori said.
Meisel is also charged with 24 counts of trying to obtain prescription drugs using forged documents.
Mounties said her daughters have been placed in the custody of the BC Ministry of Children and Families, and that relatives from Alberta are heading out to meet them.
Meisel is expected to be returned to Alberta without 24 hours.
Hamori said police in Alberta had been communicating extensively with all police forces in western Canada since the investigation began.
The RCMP detachment in Ladysmith, on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island, was first advised the family could be headed west on Tuesday based on information posted on Facebook.
