Lisa Roose-Church

Livingston Daily

Missing mom, daughter last seen in 2001 Ford Escape, plate: 2HVA18

Call 911 if you see them or Hamburg Police at 810-231-9391

An Amber Alert issued Thursday morning for a 7-year-old Hamburg Township girl was canceled at around 6 p.m. Thursday after the girl and her mother were found safe in Florida.

Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Sarah Krebs, the state Amber Alert coordinator and Missing Children’s Clearinghouse manager, confirmed that the alert was canceled when the mother and daughter were located by Florida law enforcement after having last been seen in Livingston County in the early morning hours Tuesday.

An alert was issued for the missing child, 7-year-old Sapphire Elizabeth Palmer, who was believed to be traveling with registered sex offender Douglas Steven Stanko, 64, and her mother, Amanda Elizabeth Hayward, 30. Stanko has two convictions for second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Adrian.

However, according to Click On Detroit, Hayward said she and her daughter were traveling alone.

"Nope, I am not traveling with anybody," she told the news outlet. “No one has touched her and no one has harmed her."

The Amber Alert noted that Amanda Hayward “is paranoid, delusional and may be armed” with a 9 mm Hi-Point semi-automatic handgun, which police said she recently purchased.

Hamburg Police successfully filed a petition to hospitalize Amanda Hayward for a mental evaluation when she is found.

According to Livingston County court documents, the missing mom “believes her ex-husband has control over and/or has bugged items in her home.” She told her father that she “gets information from the credits of movies.”

Amanda Hayward successfully sought a personal protection order in February against Sapphire’s father, whom she alleged “picked up a frying pan and hit me in the face and head about 20 times.” She also alleged he used a hammer to threaten to kill her.

She was reportedly expected in a Washtenaw County courtroom Tuesday for the case against Sapphire’s father. According to court records there, the father, who has served a prison term for assault and firearms, is charged with assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, felonious assault, aggravated domestic violence and failing to stop at a property damage accident.

It was not immediately known if Amanda Hayward and Sapphire’s father were married as she classified their relationship as “dating” in court documents.

Darryl Hayward, Amanda Hayward's father, said he last saw his 30-year-old daughter at around 3 a.m. Tuesday as she left her Bishop Lake Road apartment near Chilson Road with her daughter. He said just prior to leaving, his daughter was having a “paranoid episode” he believes came on due to her “mixing alcohol and medication.”

“I heard her pounding on something in the middle of the night and I got up to investigate,” he said. “I asked her what she was doing. She said people are bugging her house and putting cameras in it.”

Darryl Hayward said his daughter placed her cellphone and other electronic devices into the water-filled bathtub in an effort to “drown” the devices and stop the spying.

Hamburg Police Chief Rick Duffany said Amanda Hayward also ditched her purse alongside the roadway a few miles from her home, possibly due to the belief she was being bugged. Her purse contained her credit cards and cash.

The missing mother and daughter initially were in a black 2001 Chevrolet Prizm bearing the Michigan license plate CC86371, but that vehicle was found at around 6 p.m. Wednesday in an apartment complex in the Ypsilanti area.

Authoritie believed Amanda Hayward and her daughter were traveling with Stanko in a red 2001 Ford Escape bearing the Michigan license plate 2HVA18.

Contact Livingston Daily justice reporter Lisa Roose-Church at 517-552-2846 or lrchurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaRooseChurch.