Kimberly Pijuan, mother of 5-year-old girl who went missing in Queens, faces charges

By JESSE ZANGER, ALI BAUMAN

Click here for updates on this story

    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Police who were investigating a potential kidnapping in Queens Tuesday have arrested the mother of the 5-year-old.

Kimberly Pijuan, 30, faces charges of acting in a manner injurious to a child.

The NYPD scoured Jackson Heights for hours Tuesday with K-9s and helicopters, trying to track down the 5-year-old girl.

Pijuan called 911 at 1 p.m. saying her daughter was missing.

Sources tell CBS New York, hours earlier, the child was at Foodtown supermarket on 37th Avenue with her mother at 9 a.m. The girl wanted to go to the park, but her mom did not.

We’re told the mom ran into an acquaintance at the store — a 75-year-old man she had taken the bus with — and, for some reason, agreed to let the man take her daughter to the park.

Nearly eight hours later, around 4:30 p.m., police say three good Samaritans recognized the child from news reports. She was with the man at the Roosevelt Avenue subway station around the corner from the Foodtown.

The good Samaritans flagged down an officer, and cops took the man into custody and brought the girl into the precinct, where she was evaluated by EMTs and reunited with her mother.

So far, there have been no charges against the 75-year-old man.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.