Children missing from Mobile since July

MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) - UPDATE: 9:26 a.m. Mobile police confirmed John DeBlase, the father of missing children Natalie and Jonathan Chase DeBlase, was picked up in Milton Thursday night. Authorities are still looking for the children.

Thursday, December 2 5:29 p.m. The search is on for two missing Mobile children. Police launched a missing person's investigation after getting some disturbing information about the children. While police continue to look for the kids, they're also searching for the father.

The children's mother is extremely concerned.

"Unreal, terrified. I want my babies," Corrinn DeBlase Heathcock said.

Many emotions run through Heathcock as she fights back tears. Her two biological children, three-year-old Chase and five-year-old Natalie are missing. Police said the children were last seen in Mobile at the Peach Place Inn with their father John DeBlase and stepmother Heather Leavell-Keaton back in July.

"When they moved out of the apartment on Leroy Stephens they gave a forwarding address to Rome, Georgia. We checked with them, they have no history with them or believe they were even there," Officer Chris Levy said.

The children were not reported missing by any family member, but Levy said the department began working on a missing person's case about a week ago.

"We received a call from the Louisville, Kentucky Police Department, stating that a man had walked into the police station up there and told them that there were some kids that were from Mobile that were dead," Levy stated.

Levy said that man was the stepmother's relative. She was arrested in Kentucky.

"They have actually found evidence to put charges on her for willful abuse of a child and neglect from information that we received, and we found cases where they were struck where she used objects to strike them where they had injuries that probably warranted medical attention that they never received," he added.

"In shock, I don't see how anybody could. They were two lovable children," Heathcock said.

Police said the stepmother claimed she was abused as well. In an Order of Protection, Keaton said she needed protection from John DeBlase.

The questions still remain: where are DeBlase and the two children? Police said they've tried to contact him, but he hasn't responded.

"I just don't know what to thin," DeBlase's cousin, Mary Hathcock, said. "I just want to tell John bring the kids home."

Hathcock said she spoke to him just last week. FOX10 News asked if anybody talked to John about this situation.

"His dad said it would clear everything up, just bring the kids by," Hathcock said.

We asked what was John's response?

"He just wanted to be left alone and he and Heather just wanted to be a family," she said.

FOX10 News asked if the family asked if they're alive and okay.

"He hangs up. he won't talk. He just avoids the question," Hathcock said.

They said they don't know where he is located.

"John turn yourself in," pleaded Heathcock.

She said John has kept the children from her and hasn't seen them in more than a year. All she can do now is stay hopeful and pray.

"I want them to be found alive, I want them in my arms by Christmas. But if they are dead I want their bodies found, so I can bury them so I don't have to go through the rest of my life wondering, 'What if?' I want my kids found, if they find him, they might find my kids," Heathcock added.

Police still have not located John DeBlase or the two children.