A frantic search for a missing 4-year-old girl in Rock Island, Illinois, had the entire community on edge. Police, volunteers, and even drones were out searching for the child after her mother called 911, claiming someone had stolen her car with the little girl still inside.
But after nine long hours, the shocking truth came out—the girl had never been missing. Instead, her mother, 37-year-old Princess Ilunga, had allegedly hidden her daughter and made up the entire story. Now, she’s facing charges for filing a false police report.
It all started just after 6 a.m. on January 26, when Ilunga called the police in a panic. She said she had left her car running outside her home with her daughter in the back seat when someone stole it. Officers quickly responded and found the vehicle abandoned just a few blocks away about 15 minutes later. But there was no sign of the child.
Fearing the worst, police immediately posted the girl’s picture online, and the post spread like wildfire, being shared more than 40,000 times. The Illinois State Police even issued a statewide Amber Alert, setting off a desperate search for the missing child.
Authorities set up a command post, canvassed the area, and even used drones to search for the little girl. But around 3 p.m. that same day, officers discovered the child in an alley not far from her home. That’s when things took a turn.
After digging deeper, investigators realized the girl had never been taken in the first place. Instead, Ilunga had allegedly staged the entire ordeal, intentionally hiding her daughter.
“From the moment she called 911, our officers were lied to. The only true part of her story was that the car had been stolen,” Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud told reporters.
Things got even stranger when police reviewed their body camera footage. It turned out the missing girl was in the house the entire time, even while officers were questioning the family. Ilunga reportedly tried to throw them off by saying the child was a different daughter and even instructed her other kids to call the girl by her Swahili name. She also removed the pink coat the child had been wearing when she was supposedly abducted.
But there was one thing Ilunga didn’t count on—one of the officers spoke fluent Swahili.
“Thankfully, one of our officers understood what she was saying. That’s how we knew she was lying from the very beginning,” McCloud said.
After a detective left the scene, Ilunga allegedly put the pink coat back on her daughter and led her to a nearby alley, where she was later “found” by two women helping with the search.
But the story didn’t end there. After the ordeal, Ilunga left town with her seven children. Police issued a warrant for her arrest on January 30. Just hours later, she was pulled over nearly 200 miles away in Johnson County, Wisconsin, outside Milwaukee. The children’s father came to pick them up while Ilunga was taken into custody. She is now awaiting extradition back to Illinois.
As for why she did it, police aren’t entirely sure. However, Chief McCloud speculated that Ilunga may have thought the police would take the stolen car report more seriously if there was a child involved.
The case has left the community shocked and frustrated. What started as a terrifying child abduction case ended up being a complicated web of lies—one that wasted valuable police resources and caused unnecessary panic.
