Amber Alert

Amber Alert deactivated after 2 missing girls located, suspect arrested

The Amber Alert was issued for Kings, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Orange and Imperial counties

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NBC

An activated Amber Alert sign in this 2019 file photo.

A Central Valley man suspected of killing his girlfriend and then fleeing with their two toddler daughters surrendered Thursday at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro and turned over the apparently unharmed children to authorities.

Jonathan Alexis Maldonado-Cruz, 23, is suspected of shooting 22-year- old Madeline Cuevas, whose body was found Tuesday at her home in Hanford, about 30 miles south of Fresno. Following the deadly gunfire, Maldonado-Cruz allegedly fled to Tijuana with the couple's young daughters.

Detectives located the suspect and the children by tracking signals from both his cellphone and his slain girlfriend's, which had gone missing, Kings County Sheriff David Robinson told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.

The killing of Cuevas and the disappearance of her daughters prompted authorities on Wednesday to issue an Amber Alert across much of Central and Southern California.

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