A Tulare woman who reported her young daughter kidnapped Friday night ended up being arrested several hours later after the girl was found tied up, but safe, in the mother's car.
Tulare police issued an Amber alert for the child after the woman, Johanna Ramirez, 23, allegedly told police that two masked men had broken into her home in the 1700 block of Cotton Court and tied her up. She said one man abducted her while the second stayed in the home with her two daughters, a 3-year-old and an 8-month-old.
Ramirez told investigators she was let go on Cartmill Avenue near West Street, less than 1 1/2 miles from her home; she walked to a nearby home to ask for help.
When Tulare police took Ramirez back to her home, they found the 8-month-old still at the home but the 3-year-old missing along with the woman's car.
Police also found a ransom note demanding money for the girl's return.
Shortly before midnight, the Amber alert was canceled after police found the daughter unharmed but bound by her hands and feet in the back seat of her mother's car in an orchard on Cartmill Avenue, about a half-mile from where Ramirez said her abductor had dropped her off.
The girl told police her mother was the person who tied her up, and that no one besides her and her mother had been in the car.
Ramirez was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, child endangerment, child abuse and filing a false police report.
Both of her daughters were turned over to their fathers.
Police say they don't know yet what Ramirez's possible motive was.
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