After reportedly attempting to entice a two-year-old child out of a daycare, an Oklahoma lawyer claimed to police that she was “sent by God to be with the children.”
Based on jail records, Tracy Zahl, 49, is accused of kidnapping.
A probable cause arrest affidavit states that the incident happened at Westminster Presbyterian Church Child Care Center on July 23. Zahl entered through an unlocked door and went downstairs to a classroom, according to the complaint.
Zahl is accused of trying to remove a two-year-old girl and telling her to “come out of the classroom and follow her.” According to the affidavit, a teacher saw what was happening, took the child from Zahl, told her to leave, and called the director to discuss the matter.
Zahl kept strolling around the chapel when he noticed several kids in a line. When a teacher confronted Zahl, she placed herself into the line and claimed to be “going with them”.
According to the complaint, Zahl “proceeded to sit at a table with multiple children” in a classroom after the instructor, who believed she could be a volunteer, let her accompany the children there until she was approached by another staff member.
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She claimed to have been “sent by God to be with the children” before being instructed to leave the property once more. A staff member jotted down a portion of Zahl’s license plate and gave it to the police after she left this time.
Officers found Zahl at her residence, less than a mile from the church, using license plate readers. She acknowledged that she made a mistake and that, as she doesn’t have a child or grandchild enrolled in the daycare, she had no justification for being there.
Zahl was taken by police to the Oklahoma County Jail, where she is currently being held on a $30,000 bond. There is no lawyer named for her in court records.
Zahl has previously been punished by the Oklahoma Bar Association for falsifying a prescription. In 2021, she was also taken into custody for allegedly threatening to murder a coworker.
