Amber Alert
In this photo, a boy plays on a swing at Caju slum, ahead of the inauguration of the Police Peacekeeping Unit (UPP) in this slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 12, 2013. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

An amber alert was issued for a six-year-old girl from Hamilton County, Cincinnati, almost 24 hours after she was taken by her biological but noncustodial mother Wednesday.

The child, Malayah Sisco, was reportedly playing on the swing with her grandmother at 11:30 p.m. EDT at 12000 Block of Mason Way Court. Sisco was afraid of the Fourth of July fireworks and hence was being watched by her grandmother, when her mother, Ashley Davona Hardy, 26, arrived at the scene and hugged her.

When the mother attempted to run away with the child, the grandmother tried to stop her. At that moment, an unidentified accomplice of the mother hit Sisco’s grandmother on the head, knocking her down, allowing Hardy enough time to abduct her daughter.

The child was last seen, accompanied by the mother at the parking lot of the area she was kidnapped from, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said.

Kim Larkins, who had custody of Sisco, told Fox19 that she did not believe the child was abducted without the help of the grandmother. She felt that the entire incident was a “set up.”

According to the physical description of the victim and pictures released by the police, Sisco is African-American, weighing 40 pounds and three feet tall. She was last seen wearing a grey sleeveless shirt with red and blue designs on the front, a grey skirt with brown shoes, and braids with red and blue beads.

Hardy, on the other hand, is five feet four inches tall and weighs 105 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. The suspect was last seen driving white 2012 Chevrolet Traverse with Ohio plates HBU1106.

The accomplice was taken into police custody on Wednesday. Several attempts to contact Hardy on Wednesday night by several members of Sisco’s family, following the abduction, were in vain.

According to Fox 19, the reason why the investigators chose to wait for nearly a day before issuing an amber alert, was because they did not immediately have all the facts concerning the case. Only after learning on Thursday about the mother's mental state and alleged recent use of drugs did the police deem the victim’s life to be in danger.

Larkins added that she was “overly pissed” that the sheriff's office took so long to put out an amber alert on Sisco. “She [Hardy] was not safe and they needed to put it out. She was not stable and they were just not putting it out,” she said.

The police have requested anyone who spots individuals matching either the victim or the suspect or happens to come across the described vehicle to call 911 or 1-877-262-3764.