Missing Chesco child subject of Amber Alert

A Chester County mother who had been reported missing with her 4-year-old daughter since Wednesday is now being sought for interfering with custody and concealing the girl's whereabouts, authorities said yesterday.

State police issued an Amber Alert and asked for the public's assistance in locating Alexis Roadside, whose long brown hair was cut short and dyed black on Thursday.

District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll said authorities were concerned for the child's safety.

At a news conference, police said the child's mother, Veronica Faith Henry Roadside, 41, left her West Caln Township home on Wednesday night with her daughter after telling her husband, Robert P. Roadside Jr., that she was going to visit relatives in Newtown Square. He contacted police Saturday after no one had heard from her for several days.

Trooper Thomas Barton said after police learned of the disappearance, they discovered that a hairdresser at a beauty shop in the Gateway Shopping Center in Tredyffrin Township had been sufficiently troubled by Veronica Roadside's request to make over Alexis that she reported it to police.

Police declined to discuss the Roadsides' custody arrangement; however, court records show a troubled history. A court-ordered psychologist called the couple's marriage - the second for each - "very tumultuous and very dysfunctional."

The Roadsides married in July 2002. In June 2004, Veronica Roadside filed for divorce; in February 2006, she sought a protection-from-abuse order, alleging that her husband had sexually abused Alexis, their only child together, court records said.

In April 2006, a Chester County Court judge said investigators found no evidence of abuse; he granted custody to Robert Roadside's parents, who live in Mount Laurel. Neither Robert nor Veronica Roadside was permitted to have unsupervised visits with the child, court records said.

Police said that the couple had recently reconciled and that Robert Roadside had returned to the couple's West Caln Township residence.

The mother was driving a white 1993 Buick LeSabre four-door sedan with Pennsylvania license plate GKK-4359. Anyone with information is being asked to contact state police at 484-340-3241.