Local News

Kids Abducted From Watauga County Found In Virginia

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GALAX, VA. — A fugitive couple that allegedly took their two young children from a North Carolina foster home at gunpoint were taken into custody today in southwestern Virginia.

Jerry Wilson, the sheriff of Grayson County, Virginia, says the couple and their children were found in a mobile home in the rural, mountainous area near Galax (GAY'-lacks).

A tip from North Carolina authorities led them to the children.

Wilson says two-year-old James Paul Chambers and his 11-month-old sister are safe and on their way back to foster care in Watauga County.

The county social services agency took custody of the children in March after a raid on the couple's home, where authorities said they discovered a methamphetamine lab.

The children's parents are James Lee Canter and Alisha Chambers. They were jailed with two counts each of child abduction, felonious restraint and assault with a gun pending in North Carolina.

Jeff Brown of Mountain City, Tenn., and Sharon Woodards of Todd, N.C., were also at the mobile home.

They were charged with being accessories after the fact to felony child abduction.

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