Non-Custodial Father Charged With Kidnapping 2-Year-Old Son

RIVER ROUGE (WWJ) - A man who allegedly kidnapped his 2-year-old son after an overnight visit is now facing several criminal charges.

Steven Miracle, 22, and Joelle Jones, 21, are expected to be arraigned Saturday morning in 34th District Court.

According to police, Miracle was visiting his son last Sunday and spent the night at a relative's home on Pine Street, near Jefferson Avenue and Coolidge in River Rouge. The next morning, police say Miracle took the boy without permission and left in a car he stole with Jones.

Police issued an endangered missing persons alert for the child and a manhunt was launched. Miracle initially refused to return the child but he eventually gave the boy to relatives, who reunited him with his mother.

Joseph Miracle, the child's great-uncle, said the family was trying to give Steven Miracle a chance to get to know his son.

"The thing is, a dad shouldn't be kept away from his kids. We thought he was turning over a new leaf," Joseph Miracle told WWJ's Mike Campbell. "I thought everything was going good, you know, letting him see him here and there so he could get to know his dad and then boom, he does this. … I think it was all a game to him, like, he improved just enough to get around him and then he got him."

Miracle is charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, child enticement, custodial interference and unlawful driving away of an automobile.

Jones is charged with accessory after the fact and unlawful driving away of an automobile.