An upper Manhattan couple is on the run after abducting their eight children from a Queens foster care facility, cops said Tuesday.
Shanel Nadal, 28, went to visit her kids – seven boys between 4 and 11 years old, all named Nephra Payne, and an 11-month-old girl named Nefertiti – at the Forestdale agency on 112th St. in Forest Hills about 4 p.m. on Monday, police said.
During the visit, Nadal sneaked the youngsters out of the facility and disappeared, cops said.
Corey King, 31, whose sister Linda Mitchell has fostered five of the boys for the past three years, said he and his sister were devastated.
“These kids were taken away from their parents for domestic abuse,” King said. “We are worried for their safety. We are afraid they might get hurt.”
King said the children have lived with him and his sister in their St. Albans home for about three years.
“They came to us with emotional scars, but they are good kids,” he said. “They just need a good home. They are used to us now.”
Investigators believe the children’s father, Nephra Payne, 34, was also involved in the abduction. Police said they suspect the family is traveling in a black 1996 Chevrolet Suburban with New York license plate number EXZ5896.
They could also be in a black 2003 Ford sedan or a 1993 black Infiniti.
A spokesman for the Administration for Children’s Services said the agency is cooperating with the NYPD but declined to further comment.
Police ask anyone with information on the family’s whereabouts to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS.
