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Police in New Castle County say an Amber Alert has been cancelled as a mother’s report of her daughter’s kidnapping has been determined to be false.
The incident, officials said, is now being investigated as a homicide.
In a brief statement to members of the press on Wednesday, Andrea Botterbusch of the New Castle County Police Department said that an Amber Alert for 3-year-old Nola Dinkins was cancelled after investigators determined that the mother’s initial statement to police was a lie.
“Detectives determined that the initial account of the incident given by the mother was false,” she said.
Botterbusch said a homicide investigation in this incident has now begun. The FBI, Maryland State Police and New Castle County Police are all taking part in the investigation.
No charges have been filed and police have not named any suspects.
However, on Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement officials in Maryland, who are assisting in this investigation revealed that while their homicide unit is investigating, they are still searching and hope to find the child alive.
Nora and her mother, Darrian Randle, 31, are from Cecil County, Maryland, officials said.
As of about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, investigators were searching in the area Perryville Community Park, in Perryville, Maryland, in relation to this case.
The girl’s mother is being held in police custody and, officials said, an investigation is ongoing.
What was the initial claim of a kidnapping at gunpoint?
Police officials said an Amber Alert was issued on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, for 3-year-old Nola Dinkins. The girl’s mother told police that a couple kidnapped her daughter while holding her at gunpoint on Tuesday evening.
According to the mother’s initial statement, the incident happened at about 7 p.m. Tuesday along the 500 block of Gender Road in Newark, Delaware.
Officials said police were initially seeking a white man who was about 40-years-old and bald with peach fuzz on his head, who was wearing a black hoodie, gray basketball shorts and had a handgun.
The mother told police the man was in a vehicle driven by a blonde, white woman, officials said.
Dinkins’ mother told officers that the incident happened shortly after she had pulled over to the side of the road to talk to her daughter when a man approached and held her at gunpoint.
When the Amber Alert was issued Tuesday night, officials released a description of the man as well as a vehicle they believed he was driving, a dark-colored SUV, likely a Ford or Chevy, with rust or dirt on the exterior.
They later determined, however, that the entire report from Nola’s mother was false.
While investigators say the incident is now a homicide investigation, they have not said if or where the young girl was found dead or a possible manner of death.
