An Amber Alert issued Sunday for an 11-year-old boy authorities said was abducted by his father a day earlier has been canceled after the boy was found safe, the Modesto Police Department stated. The search for the boy’s father is ongoing, according to the Police Department.
The suspect, identified as Walter Fernando Zuniga Lara, is also suspected of stabbing the boy’s mother in the parking lot of a Motel 6 on West Orangeburg Avenue prior to the abduction, the Police Department stated.
The attack left the mother in critical condition.
Lara was said to have initially fled with the boy in a silver BMW with a California license plate number of 8PWD288. The vehicle was found Sunday morning, but the boy and father had not yet been located, according to a tweet from the California Highway Patrol.
Officials canceled the Amber Alert after the boy was found a few hours later, the CHP tweeted just before 1:15 p.m.
The Modesto Police Department said the child was found safe but the suspect was still outstanding.
The Amber Alert had been in issued across Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino and Stanislaus counties.
Anyone who sees Walter Lara is asked to call 911 immediately.
