'Your Dad Was Calling Us': Ohio Troopers' Tenderness Calms Girl Taken From Her Colorado Father

(CBS4) -- A 5-year-old Colorado girl has been returned to her father following her abduction last week; her mother now faces criminal charges in two states.

Christine Mascarenas, 22, was arrested last Saturday evening as she sprinted across the Midwest with her daughter.

Mascarenas took the child from Colorado against custody orders.

Troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol were alerted to the incident after the child's father reported her missing earlier that day. The father told Westminster Police Department officers he believed the girl's mother took the child from another relative's residence and, in light of social media posts, thought she was driving to Ohio.

Two Ohio troopers stationed near the Indiana state line spotted Mascarenas's black Cadillac on the Ohio Turnpike and pulled it over.

They took Mascarenas into custody and placed her in the back of a patrol car, then returned to get the little girl from the rear seat of the Cadillac.

"I want my mommy," the girl can be heard crying on dashcam video as troopers opened her door.

"Your dad was calling us," one trooper told her softly.

"Your dad was afraid for ya," the other added.

The girl quieted and, thanks to the comfort of a trooper's stuffed animal, walked away from her mother's car and, the next day, back into her father's arms.

"You can't help but always think of your own children. It went well," OSHP Sgt. Ryan Purpura told CBS4. "It's always great when we can find the vehicle and find the child, and get them back to the other parent. We were grateful to do that."

Mascarenas is charged in Ohio with Interfering With a Custody Order, a felony.

Once back in Colorado, she will face Violation of a Custody Order in an Adams County courtroom.

"We want to thank the Ohio State Patrol for their cooperation in helping us make sure we were able to find the child," Westminster PD's Cheri Spottke said. "Their attention to the information we were able to provide absolutely helped to resolve this incident."

An online search of criminal records shows Mascarenas pleaded guilty earlier year to three felonies - menacing, drug possession and vehicular eluding - stemming from three separate 2019 incidents in Denver and Broomfield counties. She had avoided jail time in each of those cases.