Lilly Baumann, a three-year-old who disappeared with her mother after a custody dispute, has been found safe in Florida, after a tip was phoned into a CNN hotline following the Sunday night premiere of The Hunt with John Walsh. “I felt like doing a cartwheel because now this little three-year-old girl Lilly is back safe…” Walsh told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin this afternoon. “She’s safe today because of the bravery of a caller.”
The mother, Megan Everett, was arrested near Gainesville, Fla. Everett had been in a relationship with Carlos Lesters, a pro-Confederacy activist and self-described “racist.”
Lilly’s father, Robert Baumann, was concerned about his daughter’s safety and sued for full custody. When the court established a custody agreement, Megan Everett took her daughter and disappeared, leaving a note saying she was unwilling to have her child be “brainwashed.”
The Hunt was tied to four captures last year–the arrest in Florida marks the show’s first arrest of the year.