Amber alert for abducted California toddler canceled after 2 bodies found

A California-wide Amber Alert for a 2-year-old girl abducted by her father was canceled Saturday night after two bodies were found in a car in a remote area of El Dorado County, the FBI said.

The Amber Alert had been issued Friday afternoon for Madeline Samaan-Fey, 2, and her father, 49-year-old Mourad "Moni" Samaan, who the authorities believed abducted the toddler. 

Amber alerts are issued in incidents of suspected child abduction. Law enforcement agencies are given access to radio, television, the internet, highway information signs, and even cell phone networks to send out information to help locate a child, according to the California Highway Patrol website.

The Amber Alert Program originated in Texas in 1996 after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered.

Madeline Samaan-Fey was last seen a week ago in a Sacramento grocery store after Mourad Samaan defied a legal notice to return Madeline to her mother, the authorities said, the Mercury News reports.

The bodies of a man and a girl were found in a green Toyota 4Runner owned by Samaan at about 8 p.m., Special Agent John Cauthen told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Inside the vehicle was an adult male and a female child," Cauthen said. "Both were deceased. The cause and time of death are unknown."

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 74 percent of children who were abducted and later found murdered were killed within three hours of being taken.