Girl Accused Of Trying To Kill Sleeping Mother

PERU, Ind. -- Police said they arrested a 12-year-old Miami County girl suspected of setting fire to her sleeping mother's bed and driving away in a car with her younger siblings Monday.

The mother called 911 at about 5 a.m. to say that she woke up to see her bed burning. She extinguished the fire and noticed her car and her three children -- ages 12, 8 and 6 -- were missing from their southern Miami County home, state police said.

When a Miami County sheriff's sergeant called the mom's cell phone, the 12-year-old answered and said she and her siblings had been abducted, police said. The girl said she was being forced to drive south on U.S. 31 while their abductor followed in another vehicle, according to police.

The officer persuaded the girl to stop at a location in Howard County, where sheriff's deputies found the children unharmed, police said.

Investigators determined that the children were not abducted, that the 12-year-old had set her mother's bed on fire as the woman slept on it, and that the girl stole her mother's car and persuaded her siblings to leave with her, according to police.

The 12-year-old was being held Monday evening at a juvenile detention facility on charges of attempted murder and arson, police said. The other children were released to their mother.