An Amber Alert for a 13-year-old girl from Baxley, Georgia, was canceled Friday after investigators found her safe at a motel in Jacksonville. The alert, issued Thursday afternoon, ended with a fast-moving search that crossed state lines and ended with charges against two people.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued the alert around 2 p.m. Thursday, after the Baxley Police Department said it got a call that the teen had been forcefully taken from her home. Police said Giavonnie Carter was banging on the door of a home on James Drive with a knife in her hand, and that Carter and Johnathan Kelly then entered the home and took the girl.
By Thursday evening, the case had moved to Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation spotted a vehicle believed to be involved at about 5:30 p.m. at the Scottish Inn on Phillips Highway. Later, at 9:35 p.m., investigators executed a search warrant and found the teen safe.
Joseph, who watched the scene unfold, said it moved almost instantly. “I just saw big SWAT trucks coming in and they surrounded the guy. He tried to take off, ran into the building,” he said. “It all happened within two minutes. I mean, it was crazy.”
Carter and Kelly have been charged with kidnapping and home invasion. Carter also faces aggravated assault and other offenses, while Kelly has been charged with probation violation and additional offenses by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Police said Carter was the teen’s biological mother but did not have legal custody, a detail that leaves the family breakup at the center of the case even after the child was recovered.
In Georgia, an Amber Alert is known as Levi’s Call, and this one ended as quickly as it began. The teen was safe, the alert was canceled, and the remaining question is not where she is now, but what led to a home invasion and a child being taken from her own door in the first place.
