Haylee Donathan – The mother of missing 4-year old Haylee Donathan, Candace Watson, helped a convicted sex offender escape from a halfway house and ran away with him on May 28, 2009.
Authorities believe Haylee Donathan was waiting in a pickup truck with sex offender Robbi Potter outside a Marion, Ohio WalMart store where Haylee’s mother Candace Watson, 24, was caught on surveillance cameras on May 31.
Police say that Watson and Poston took little Haylee with them when they fled the state.
In a bizarre twist, Haylee’s father, James Donathan, and her uncle Cyle Watson, were arrested June 11th and charged with helping Potter escape from the halfway house. Another woman, Nicole Kirkpatrick, also faces charges in connection with Potter’s escape.
Robbi Potter, 27, had only recently been released from prison after being convicted of sexual battery of a minor.
“I’m a father myself and I can just imagine the fear in this girl, so we’re not going to stop, we’re
going to keep going until we get her back safely,” said Assistant Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Drew Deserto.
Deserto said they are willing to speak with Potter and Haylee’s mother to arrange a ’safe surrender.’
The pickup truck the couple is believed to be driving is a blue 1988 Chevrolet with Ohio license plate number DNS9729 and police are investigating a possible sighting in Phoenix, Arizona.
And that’s the latest news on the bizarre disappearance of 4-year old Haylee Donathan.
Tags: candace watson, girl abducted, haley donathan, haylee donathan, missing girl, robbi poston, sex offender
June 16th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Haylee Donathan Video
June 16th, 2009 at 10:56 am
[...] Haylee Donathan Haylee Donathan – The mother of missing 4-year old Haylee Donathan, Candace Watson, helped a convicted sex offender escape from a halfway house and ran away with him on May 28, 2009. [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Dear God please let this child be alright.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Hi there! Just wondered if you had a link/source for the possible Arizona sighting? TIA. Also did you hear that there was a sighting (verified by USM) in Stratton, CO on 2 June at the ampride station? Thanks for your reporting on this case!
June 18th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
The U.S. Marshals Task Force began assisting in the fugitive investigation June 4 and is pursuing all leads and tips.
On Tuesday, Task Force Officers arrested three individuals for charges of complicity to escape.
Those arrested were Kyle Watson, 21, James Donathan, 24, and Nichole Kirkpatrick, 20.
Watson is the brother of Candace Watson, Donathan is the biological father of the missing child and Kirkpatrick is the girlfriend of Donathan.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Office officially charged Candace Watson with complicity to escape and a warrant is now out for her arrest.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
They say that this obduction does not meet the criteria of the Amber Alert rules. This is outragious because
The Amber Alert signs on our local Hwy 101 thru Ventura County, California, have issued this message and it’s been up for months now:
“25 minutes to Topanga Blvd.
15 min. to Hwy 150″
They are using it for traffic !!!!!!!
Do traffic alerts meet the criteria of an Amber Alert?
June 24th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Haylee Donathan found
(CNN) — A tip from an isolated communal farm in rural San Diego County, California, may have led police to solve the well-publicized case of a missing 4-year-old Ohio girl.
Haylee Donathan was found with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, fugitive sex offender Robbie Potter.
Authorities stormed the ranch in a dramatic Tuesday afternoon raid to find young Haylee Donathan; her mother, Candace Watson; and Robbie Potter, Watson’s boyfriend and a registered sex offender who had escaped from a half-way house.
Haylee had been missing for 27 days, and the search for her had been spotlighted on national television current affairs shows.
In a news conference Tuesday, police did not say what lead them to the remote Morning Star Ranch to rescue Haylee.
Despite exhaustive media coverage and hundreds of law enforcement agencies on the case, Haylee and the two adults had spent more than a week on the ranch without raising suspicions, said Kevin Carlin, a member of the ranch in the neighborhood of Valley Center.
Ranch members became suspicious when a former guest saw billboards urging help in finding Haylee and the two adults while traveling in Las Vegas, Nevada, Carlin said during a phone interview.
The ranch contacted police, who coordinated the secret rescue mission pulled off Tuesday.
“We cooperated fully,” he said.
In an Ohio news conference, Peter Elliott, United States marshal for the northern district of Ohio, said of the many tips that came in, one in particular helped break the case. But he did not elaborate.
Before ranch members became suspicious, Haylee, her mother and Potter seemed like a happy family, Carlin said.
“We thought they were a couple,” Carlin said. “We thought she was their child. We treated them as guests. They helped us and we provided for their basic needs,” said Carlin, explaining that no one at the ranch knew Watson and Potter were wanted.
They told their hosts they were married, he said.
“They seemed nice enough,” Carlin said, adding that it is not in the group members’ nature to be suspicious of others, so they take people at their word and do not grill new members about their lives or background.
“We pray to be delivered from evil every day, and we obviously were. We’re just so thankful.”
Watson and Potter kept a low profile, doing their chores in the kitchen and on the farm, Carlin said. He described Haylee as a sweet little girl who played well with the other children on the ranch, a 66-acre plot in rural San Diego County.
According to Carlin, the 6-year-old community is part of a worldwide messianic Christian organization known as The Twelve Tribes.
Just before the raid, Carlin said the other families were moved to safety but went about their own business, even going for a swim.
“It was pretty tense because there were armed men on our property and helicopters overhead,” he said. ‘”The couple didn’t resist arrest, and it went smoothly.”
A few families live on the ranch in several separate homes, according to Carlin, who declined to give an exact number of people.
Haylee, Watson and Potter slept in the same room, but Carlin said he was not sure if they slept in the same bed.
Last week, in an interview on HLN’s Nancy Grace, Watson’s roommate said she saw all three in one bed the morning they disappeared, a revelation that further alarmed authorities.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:46 am
[...] Grandmother Granted Custody Haylee Donathan, 3, became the focus of a nationwide Amber Alert. Haylee Donathan An Amber Alert has not been issued but authorities have issued a missing child's advisory [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:58 am
Thank God they found her before it was too late!