4-year-old New York girl, missing since 2019, found alive under staircase

SAUGERTIES, New York (WCBS) — An upstate girl who was missing for more than two years has been found alive in Ulster County.

Paislee Shultis, then 4 years old, was reported missing in July of 2019, but police found her Monday night in a secret room under a staircase in Saugerties, CBS2’s Nick Caloway reported.

The little girl was said to be in good condition. She was found more than 150 miles away from her home.

Police had been at the location before looking for the girl, but after a two-year search she was found in a cold, cramped secret space under a set of stairs.

Paislee was initially reported missing from the Tompkins County village of Cayuga Heights, near Ithaca.

Police have long suspected her biological parents, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis, of kidnapping the girl, but previous searches of their home on Fawn Road in Saugerties came up empty.

Then a tip came into police this week that the girl was being held in the home.

Cops got a warrant and during the search an officer noticed something about the stairs leading to the basement that made him take a closer look.

“He took a flashlight and looked between the cracks between the steps. He saw what he thought it was a blanket, and at that point they used a halogen tool, a forcible entry tool, and they started ripping the steps off the staircase, itself. At one point they saw little feet, as he put it,” Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said.

It was little Paislee, now 6, hiding in the hole, along with her alleged abductor and biological mother.

Neighbors were stunned that the missing little girl had been in the home all along.

“I’m just shocked, because they seemed like regular people,” Annette Wrolsen said.

The parents do not have custody. They were arrested and charged with custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child. The girl’s paternal grandfather was also charged, police said.

Caloway tried talking to the parents at the family home, but a woman inside did not have much to say.

Police say the little girl was in good health, aside from being removed from society and kept in the Saugerties house for so long.

“Number one, this little girl didn’t have an opportunity to go to school. We are pretty certain that she probably wasn’t receiving proper medical attention,” Sinagra said. “Obviously, the family just couldn’t take her to a doctor because she was a reported missing person. The other concern is you have a child that doesn’t write or read because they didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. They will now.”

After that little girl was removed from the home she was on her way to the police station when they passed a McDonald’s. She told the detectives that she hadn’t had McDonald’s in such a long time, so they turned around and got her a Happy Meal.

Paislee has since been returned to her legal guardian and reunited with her older sister.