Illinois police arrest double-murder suspect after Kansas child abduction

TOPEKA (KSNT) – Police say a man accused of kidnapping a Topeka child and taking him more than 400 miles from home is in custody.

The Mattoon Police Department (MPD) in Illinois said in a press release that officers were notified around 12:10 p.m. on July 22 that a child at the center of an AMBER Alert out of Topeka, Kansas may be inside the city limits. Police say they learned the suspect involved in the abduction and a double-murder in Topeka, 32-year-old Christopher Barnshaw, was driving a white Lexus passenger car in Mattoon.

The MPD said one of its officers who was on a traffic stop on Route 16 at 12:16 p.m. spotted the suspect’s vehicle pass by. The officer began following the vehicle east towards Charleston, Illinois.

Multiple officers pulled the vehicle over at the intersection of Route 16 and Beechtree Road. Police took Barnshaw into custody without issue and recovered the missing child, who was in the backseat, unharmed. Officers also recovered a firearm on Barnshaw.

The MPD said Barnshaw is being held on aggravated kidnapping and unlawful use of a weapon charges in the Coles County Jail. The department is working to reunite the child with a family member.

The Topeka Police Department held a press conference on July 22 regarding the abduction. TPD Chief Chris Vallejo said police were called around 9:50 a.m. on July 22 to a home in the 500 block of Wabash on a welfare check. Officers found a man and woman dead and discovered a two-year-old child was missing. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) issued an AMBER Alert for the child shortly after the deaths were discovered.

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