REGINA — Police across two provinces and one state have launched a desperate search for a four-year-old girl and her mother, whom authorities believe were taken by the girl’s father.
Just before noon Tuesday, Regina police issued an Amber alert for four-year-old Samantha Martyn. Police say they believe Samantha may have been taken Monday evening by 39-year-old Christopher Alan Martyn.
Regina police spokeswoman Lara Guzik says authorities are also concerned because the girl’s mother Natasha Sentes is nowhere to be found.
“Information that we have got makes us believe that it is an abduction. We have great concern for the safety of both Samantha and Natasha,” said Guzik.
“We can’t get into the great history. I can tell you that there is a restraining order before the courts right now.”
Manitoba Mounties said in a news release late Tuesday afternoon that they believe Martyn is headed to Manitoba. The North Dakota Highway Patrol also issued their own Amber alert in case the trio crossed the border.
Guzik said Sentes was estranged from Martyn, although whether they were married or common-law spouses was not immediately clear.
According to the provincial courthouse, a non-contact order was issued against Martyn on June 17. The documents say Martyn was accused of making “threats to do personal injury to Natasha Sentes and Natasha Sentes is afraid that Christopher Alan Martyn will carry out such threats.”
Martyn was supposed to go through lawyers to arrange access to Samantha.
On June 25, Sentes posted on Facebook: “First weekend without my Sammie, since the break up. I miss her already :( ”
Comments posted on Facebook by Sentes’ friends after the Amber alert was issued prayed for her safe return. “Come home safe and sound we are all thinking of you and Sammy,” wrote one friend.
Samantha was last seen Monday at 6:15 p.m. when Martyn picked her up, as scheduled, at a home in Regina. Sentes was last seen at 10:30 Monday night, leaving work at Evraz Place.
Guzik says a family friend reported the two missing at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday when they couldn’t be contacted.
“He was supposed to pick up his daughter and then the mother, Natasha, was supposed to pick up Samantha. We don’t know what has happened after this time when she got off work at that point,” said Guzik.
Guzik says police don’t think Martyn, Samantha and Sentes are still in Regina, but she wouldn’t go into further detail.
Police believe the three may be in a brown, four-door 2007 Ford Taurus with Saskatchewan licence plate 250-FMA.
Samantha is described as Caucasian, long, light brown hair with bangs, weighing 50 pounds and about three feet seven inches tall. Sentes is described as Caucasian, five feet six inches, 155 pounds, with black curly hair and brown eyes.
Martyn is five feet, eight inches tall, 225 pounds, with short brown hair, brown eyes, a scar on left wrist and tattoo heart on upper left arm.
Guzik pleaded for people to keep their eyes open.
“We need your help to locate these three people. We have safety concerns and it’s very, very important that they be located as soon as possible,” she said.
Martyn has a criminal record, having been convicted of manslaughter nearly 20 years ago for running down Joel Olson, 29, of Oxbow, Sask., on Nov. 23, 1991, in a dispute over an unpaid bill.
Martyn was originally sentenced to two years less a day but that was increased to 4 1/2 years upon appeal. The appeal court also prohibited him from driving for five years.
The appeal court ruling at the time noted that Martyn, then 23, had originally been charged with second-degree murder of Olson and attempted murder of another man “by driving at him dangerously with a motor vehicle.”
Court was told Olson operated a garage in Oxbow and had repaired Martyn’s car, presenting him with a bill for $1,000.00.
However, Martyn skipped out on the bill and when the two men met in the parking lot of the local hotel after closing time early one morning, there was trouble.
The ruling said Olson assaulted Martyn as he sat in his car. Martyn then tried to drive away with Olson holding the seatbelt and dragging alongside the vehicle.
The appeal judges noted Martyn spent some time trying to get away from the area, but eventually pulled out onto the highway and aimed at the other man at a high rate of speed.
Martyn testified at his trial that he didn’t see Olson but the appeal judges ruled he “showed wanton and reckless disregard for the lives and safety of other persons.”
“The evidence is clear that the respondent drove his car at an accelerated rate of speed in the direction where he knew persons were about,” said the ruling.
“After running over one of them, he left the scene at a high speed and did not return to render assistance or report the incident to the police. After impact with the victim, he accelerated to get over the body.”