The FBI used cellular phone tracking to locate and recover two missing minors, a six-month-old baby and a 16-year-old girl, in separate kidnapping and sexual assault cases over a single weekend, with both suspects now in custody.
In West Lafayette, Indiana, a 22-year-old babysitter named Jasmine O'Sullivan allegedly took a six-month-old infant and fled across state lines to Louisville, Kentucky. The West Lafayette Police Department contacted FBI Indianapolis for help. By that evening, agents had developed information, using the bureau's Cellular Analysis Survey Team, known as CAST, indicating O'Sullivan and the child were in Louisville. Louisville Metro Police located and detained O'Sullivan. FBI Louisville then arrested her on probable cause, and she now faces a federal kidnapping charge. The infant was transferred to protective services.
In a separate case in El Paso County, Colorado, 28-year-old Jacob Anderson allegedly broke into a 16-year-old girl's residence and sexually assaulted her. After Anderson left, the girl called 911. Deputies from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office responded but could not find either the victim or the suspect. FBI Denver's Colorado Springs office stepped in, deploying CAST to track the cellular phones of both the victim and the suspect. The teen was safely recovered, and Anderson was arrested, transported to the El Paso County Jail, and booked on charges of aggravated robbery, menacing with a real or simulated weapon, second-degree assault, and sexual assault.
Both victims were recovered within 24 hours of their respective cases being reported, Breitbart News reported in an exclusive account that included a direct statement from FBI Director Kash Patel.
CAST, the FBI's Cellular Analysis Survey Team, tracks suspects and victims through their cellular phone signals. In both cases, the technology allowed agents to pinpoint locations that local law enforcement had been unable to determine on their own. The Indiana case required coordination across two states and three agencies. The Colorado case required locating a victim and suspect who had both left the scene before deputies arrived.
FBI Director Kash Patel tied the successful recoveries to broader reforms he has pushed at the bureau, including a new initiative called the Director's Strategic Information Center, or DSIC. Patel said the center has cut the time it takes for critical intelligence to reach FBI leadership from as long as 30 minutes down to as little as one to three minutes.
In an exclusive statement, Patel laid out the stakes plainly:
"These two cases represent why this FBI has invested so heavily in improving our technology and accelerating our rapid critical incident response time with partners through the brand new DSIC. FBI Louisville and FBI Denver were both able to safely recover two minor victims within one weekend, one a 16-year-old, and one a 6-month-old baby, using our Cellular Analysis Survey Team to identify perpetrators and locate the victims. Thanks to brilliant work from our agents, intelligence teams, and local partners coordinating with us, both of these victims were recovered within 24 hours. The quick decisions and effective technology both saved young lives."
Patel also posted on X about the DSIC's broader mission, writing that "the FBI doesn't get second chances when seconds matter" and that "every minute saved can mean more lives protected."
The two cases share almost nothing in common except the tool that cracked them. In Indiana, the crime was a babysitter, someone entrusted with a family's infant, who allegedly fled with the child to another state. That kind of betrayal of trust is every parent's worst fear, and without the FBI's ability to track O'Sullivan's phone across state lines, the search could have dragged on far longer.
Under Patel's leadership, the FBI has also pursued high-profile fugitives overseas, reflecting a broader emphasis on using the bureau's reach and technology to close cases that might otherwise go cold.
In Colorado, the crime was far more violent. Anderson allegedly broke into a teenager's home, assaulted her, and left. When deputies arrived and found neither the victim nor the suspect, the situation could easily have spiraled. The girl had called 911, but she was gone by the time help showed up. Without CAST tracking, investigators would have been working from a cold trail in a county that covers more than 2,100 square miles of terrain east of the Rockies.
The charges against Anderson, aggravated robbery, menacing with a weapon, second-degree assault, and sexual assault, suggest a level of violence well beyond a single crime. Those are county-level charges. Whether state or federal prosecutors will add additional counts remains an open question.
Patel has drawn both praise and scrutiny for his hands-on approach to the bureau. He was publicly rebuked by the Secret Service earlier for disclosing details of a drone-attack probe before arrests were complete, a reminder that speed and transparency can sometimes collide with operational security.
Patel's emphasis on the DSIC reflects a deliberate effort to reorient the FBI toward rapid-response operations. His claim that intelligence delivery time dropped from up to 30 minutes to as little as one to three minutes, if accurate, represents a dramatic operational change. In kidnapping and sexual assault cases involving children, those minutes can determine whether a victim is found alive.
The bureau's recent track record under Patel includes returning a major Medicare fraud fugitive to U.S. custody from Turkey, part of a pattern of high-value enforcement actions that Patel has highlighted publicly.
Critics of the FBI, and there are plenty on both sides of the aisle, have spent years questioning whether the bureau's resources were aimed at the right targets. The agency's reputation took hits during the Trump-era investigations, including declassified memos revealing the bureau probed whether Trump was a Russian asset after the Comey firing. Patel has sought to redirect that conversation toward operational results, rescues, arrests, and measurable improvements in response time.
Whether the DSIC and CAST represent a lasting institutional shift or a showcase for Patel's tenure will depend on whether these results hold up over time. For now, the facts from one weekend speak clearly: two children are safe, and two suspects are behind bars.
The FBI has spent years answering questions about what it was doing wrong. A six-month-old baby and a 16-year-old girl are alive and safe because, this time, agents answered the only question that mattered, where are they?
