Two Columbus First Responders receive hero award for preventing child kidnappings
Two local first responders with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office received Friday Hero awards at Piedmont Columbus Regional Tuesday after preventing two children from being kidnapped.
Cpl. Maximus Raniero was working at the Muscogee County jail on December 15, 2023 when he monitored concerning chirps coming from an inmate., according to a post by Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman.
Chirps are messages sent from a communication device given to inmates, according to Countryman. Countryman told the Ledger-Enquirer each message costs the inmate a few cents per chirp.
Raniero then enlisted the help of Deputy Stephanie Culberson to take a closer look into the messages.
After further investigation it was determined the chirps were between an inmate, a local person and a person in the state of New York who were planning to kidnap two local children and take them to New York for human trafficking, according to a statement read at the award ceremony Tuesday.
Countryman confirmed this led to the arrest of Craig Livingston, from Cortland, N.Y., and Chanda Smith, from Columbus.
Livingston and Smith were both charged with two counts felony human trafficking for sexual servitude, two counts felony sexual exploitation of a child and two counts felony use of a communication facility to commit a felony, according to a Facebook post from Countryman.
Smith was supposedly soliciting money from Livingston in exchange for pictures of underage children, according to the post.
The post said that Livingston and Smith were allegedly in communication about the delivery of underage children to Cortland, N.Y.
The delivery was to take place on New Years Day 2024, according to the post.
Countryman told reporters regarding Raniero and Culberson, “The work that they did, it helped to save a life.”
“The tragic part about human trafficking is that when our young babies, our young men and our young women are taken they’re often not found,” said Countryman in a press conference. “If they are found, they’re normally in such bad shape until they’re just not recognizable.”
Countryman told reporters that approximately 40,000 to 60,000 chirps go through the Muscogee County Jail each day.
Culberson said she cried when she got confirmation of the arrests. “It sort of solidified that what I’m doing is right and what we’re doing in that jail is right and moving in the right direction,” Culberson said.
Raniero, who has two daughters, said it meant something to him to be able to help two other children.
“I was really glad we got those people off the street,” Raniero said.
