3 girls missing from Albany Park reunited with family

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Three girls, ages 5, 8, and 14, who were reported missing from Chicago's Northwest Side have been reunited with their family.

Mother Anai Lopez told ABC 7 Eyewitness News her two girls, 5-year-old Ashley Vinansaca and 8-year-old Leslie Vinansaca, spent the Fourth of July holiday with their father in the 4700-block of North Spaulding Avenue in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood.

Lopez said he went to work Thursday morning and left the two girls behind with his mother and his 14-year-old niece, Asmin Martinez, who the family has had trouble with before.

The family said Asmin managed to escape a locked window around 1 p.m. Thursday and took her young cousins out of the house without permission.

Lopez said she has no idea where they went or why the teen took her daughters.

The three girls may have been headed to the 6400-block of South Artesian Avenue in Chicago's Marquette Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side to visit a friend, police said. They may have used public transportation.

A resident called police to say they spotted the girls in the area Friday morning. They were reunited with their family Friday afternoon.