A 4-year-old girl who was missing in November 2021 in November 2021 was safely found in a joint operation by the US Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force and the Chicago Police Department, officials announced on Monday.
The blessing was a year old when her mother, Erika Ephraim, also known as Ericka Waso, visited her in a facility in Brighton Park on November 5, 2021, said officials. The blessing disappeared during the visit, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which had the legal custody of the child, reported that both her and her mother were missing.
In May 2024, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) published an updated missing person bulletin for blessing and a separate bulletin for her mother three weeks later. The Bulletins indicated that the authorities suspected that Ephraim had taken the girl to California or Texas.
Without calling the blessing or her mother, the US Marsals Service published a press release on Monday stating that CPD asked for help finding a missing baby on January 1, 2025. A source confirmed that the baby blessed.
Research by CPD and the US Marshals Service led the authorities to concentrate on two homes – one in Chicago and another in Blue Island – with a Chicago address that emerges as the primary lead, according to the press release. Authorities confirmed that Ephraim lived at the Chicago location, where a young girl, about 4 to 5 years old, peeked out of a window on the second floor.
On 3 June 2025, the authorities carried out further supervision and the child strongly determined an age -related image of blessings of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Officers decided to continue an arrest operation to restore the child, said the Marshals service.
After they forced access to the house, officers arrested Ephraim while trying to flee, according to the press release. Blessing was taken in protective detention and returned to DCFS because it remains a department of the state, the Marshals service explained.
Ephraim was booked in the prison of Cook County on several active warrants, including one for complete extradition of the California Department of Corrections, as well as non-expelled warrants for theft in Cook County, stolen building in Orange County, California, according to the press, according to the press, the press release.
CPD published individual press releases on 6 June 2025 and announced that blessing and her mother were ‘safe’.
