By Scott E. Williams
The Daily News

Published May 7, 2008

ALGOA — Four kids reported missing Monday night were back Tuesday, as officials continued a probe into their disappearance.

The children, ages 6 to 15, reportedly left the Algoa home where a Brazoria County judge placed them in 2006 after a Child Protective Services investigation into drug use at the children’s original home.

The kids’ father, Gary Allan Loeffler, 36, twice has been to prison in Texas, once in 1998-99 for burglary of a habitation and most recently in 2006-07 for a felony family violence assault conviction, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Both of those cases originated from Harris County, she said.

The case did not appear to involve an unwilling abduction, investigators said. The children reportedly ran to their parents when the Loefflers drove up to the home in Aloga, according to sheriff’s office reports.

The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office issued an Amber Alert late Monday but rescinded it Tuesday afternoon after detectives reached the parents and arranged for the return of the children.

The parents reportedly had limited visitation rights to the children, who had been sent to live with friends of the family in Algoa.

CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin said that parents typically did not know where their kids were when the kids were in foster care, but the children in this case were not in foster care. The Algoa family had permanent custody.

However, Olguin said that CPS case workers would have to talk to the children before deciding what to do with them now.

Deputies were also investigating, and no criminal charges had been filed Tuesday.

The (Brazosport) Facts contributed to this report.

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Emphasis added by H4K Editor