TRUST YOUR GUT!
December 1, 2022 - The family of a little boy from Montana are happy that a couple visiting family in Mariposa over the Thanksgiving holiday did just that. While visiting family on 
Darrah Rd the couple just didn't feel right about a little boy and his father they were introduced to. After leaving to go home, they did some good ole internet FBI sleuthing and found the little boy on the Missing and Exploited Children's website. They immediately contacted the reporting agency, Sidney Police Department in Montana.
Sidney PD contacted us and requested we act on an active warrant in place for the boy's father and take custody of the little boy. Mariposa County Sheriff's Deputies located the boy and his father at the Darrah Road address. Raymond Berry age 39 was arrested and Taylem was taken to a safe location pending reunification with his mom.
For more details about the missing boy, please read the Sidney Police Department press release below.
Source: Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office
SIDNEY, MT — On November 29, 2022, the Sidney Police Department received a tip regarding the 
whereabouts of Raymond and Taylem Berry in the area of Mariposa County, California. Investigators from the Sidney Police Department verified and corroborated this information, and, working with the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office, Raymond and Taylem Berry were located. Raymond was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an arrest warrant issued in this case for the offense of Parenting Interference in violation of Montana Code Annotated 45-5-634. Taylem Berry is safe and was taken into protective custody pending reunification with his mother.
Since publishing the BOLO on November 2, 2022, the Sidney Police Department received numerous tips and leads, and we diligently pursued each of those leads while also utilizing our connections with law enforcement information networks to disseminate this information and generate new information. We also worked continuously with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners in other states to expand our search and pursue leads as they came in.
Some in the public have asked why an AMBER Alert was not issued in this matter. The AMBER Alert Program has very specific criteria that must be met in order to issue an alert, and those requirements were not met in this case. The AMBER Alert system is not used to track runaways, missing children, or children involved in custody disputes. In this matter, Raymond Berry and Taylem's mother both share legal custody of Taylem, and a parenting plan or court-ordered custody arrangement had not been in effect. However, it is a violation of Montana law when one parent knowingly withholds a child from the other parent when the action manifests a purpose to substantially deprive that parent of parenting rights.
Now that the active search for Taylem Berry has come to a successful conclusion, we at the Sidney Police Department would like to express our sincerest gratitude to our community, our law enforcement partners, and everyone who shared information on this case or called in with a tip.
Source: Sidney Police Department
