Fair Play police chief finds missing children during traffic stop

A routine traffic stop in Fair Play quickly turned into much more when three missing children were spotted in the back seat.

They had been missing since March.

Chief Ed Morrison was patrolling town last weekend when he passed a vehicle that didn't have a license plate, and pulled it over.

Morrison radioed dispatch with the information on the woman driving and they radioed back with some shocking news.

"Her and her boyfriend were persons of interest in a case with three missing juveniles. And I told dispatch well there is three juveniles in the back seat of this car." said Chief Ed Morrison, with the Fair Play police department.

36 year old Valerie Scott had a warrant out of Montana for parental kidnapping after she skipped a court appearance for a parenting plan and took off with the kids.

She was down in the area to visit her father and was unaware of the warrant out for her arrest.

"I actually didn't do anything that any other deputy or officer wouldn't have done. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. If she would have had a valid temp tag my PC for the stop would have been gone, I wouldn't have even have ran her." said Morrison.

Morrison says in a small town stuff like this doesn't happen often so helping those kids felt good.

"You have that sense of satisfaction that you have done your job." said Morrison. "I just did my job and by doing that it worked out the way it should have worked out."

And his most unique traffic stop of his 18 year career was just days before his retirement.

"For me it is a good way to go out." said Morrison. "It feels good to end it that way, but I hate to end it."

He is set to retire on Wednesday, his 74th birthday.

The kids were returned to their father.

And Scott is being held in the Polk County jail on a 25 thousand dollar bond.