SAN ANTONIO — Law enforcement converged on a motel in Pearsall, Texas, where an hourslong standoff ended with the arrests of two Indiana adults who were being sought for taking their three young children, whom they do not have custody of.
The siblings — 4-year-old Frankie, 3-year-old Queen and 1-year-old King — were also found at the Rio Frio Motel and taken into the custody of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which took them for a medical evaluation before starting the process of returning them to family.
The sibling's disappearances prompted a Silver Alert in Indiana on Friday, where police said they believed their noncustodial parents, Willie Frank and Jessika Terrell, were taking them to Mexico. Both were booked into the Frio County Jail Tuesday night, according to DPS.
“Everyone surrendered peacefully," said Texas DPS Spokesperson Orlando De Luna Jr. at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, more than seven hours after a failed traffic stop on a white van resulted in the suspects barricaded themselves and the kids in the motel. "Everyone walked out of the hotel, so there didn’t appear to be any injuries."
The standoff began around 3 p.m. and eventually involved the efforts of FBI, Texas Troopers and Texas Rangers, as well as local and county authorities. Pearsall is a city of about 8,800 residents and located about 55 miles southwest of San Antonio.
Video shared to KENS 5 by Corners News provides a daytime glimpse of the large police response earlier in the standoff.
Police in Indiana said the parents met the siblings' grandfather, who has custody of the children, at a restaurant for a meeting approved by the Department of Child Services. The grandfather said he went to the bathroom, but the children were gone by the time he returned.
Authorities pinged the parents' phones multiple times, pinpointing their location to Pearsall.
"It all started when he was coming out from Jalisco where he was getting food for the kids, I'm guessing," said Jack Morquecho, a guest at the Rio Frio Motel. "We looked through the window and there was a lot of officers coming out of their units with the ARs."
In a probable cause affidavit, it says the children were removed from their parents' custody in October of 2023 following allegations of medical neglect and malnourishment. The affidavit said during a phone call Monday, Willie Terrell told his therapist the children were ok and they were on their way to Mexico. He also said he wanted an FBI investigation into why his children kept being taken away.
Frio County Sheriff, Pedro Salinas, said it took a collaborative effort between agencies on every level to convince the Terrells to open the motel door.
"They had them on the phone for hours and hours on end trying to figure out what we needed to do or what we could do for them to get them to bring a peaceful end to this situation," said Salinas.
Indianapolis Police said all three children have medical conditions that could become deadly if they aren't taking their proper medications. Officials said the children did not have their medicine for at least six days.
Willie Frank and Jessika Terrell are facing charges of interference with child custody. Willie is also facing a charge of evading arrest. This is on top of additional charges out of Indianapolis.
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