A live-in
transgender babysitter charged with kidnapping has died of
cancer, the Dyersburg, Tenn., State Gazette
reported. Erika Sadowski, 59, was accused of taking two
children and keeping them from their home in west
Tennessee for almost 14 hours in March.
She died of brain
cancer on Saturday at her family home in Delaware, the
State Gazette reported Wednesday. Sadowski was
indicted by a Dyer County grand jury in June on two counts
of attempted kidnapping. She had been scheduled
for a court appearance next month in Dyer County.
District attorney
Phil Bivens couldn't immediately be reached Thursday,
but a clerk in his office said staffers there knew Sadowski
had been ill. Police say Sadowski left the home
she shared with the two girls, ages 1 and 5, and their
parents for a shopping trip with the children around 7
p.m. on March 17. When they did not return by 1 a.m.,
the parents notified Dyersburg police, who issued an Amber
Alert about the missing children.
After authorities
arrested Sadowski, a medical inspection at the jail
revealed that Erika was biologically male. Sadowski
apparently changed her name sometime around 1986 after
being discharged from the U.S. Air Force after a
20-year career, according to a background check. (AP)