Paislee Shultis’ mom appears to SMIRK in mugshot after parents arrested as girl found hiding in dirty staircase

THE mom of a missing girl who was found hidden under a dirty staircase appears to smirk in her mugshot after being charged over the disappearance of the six-year-old in 2019.

Paislee Shultis was found in a secret room under the basement stairs in her grandfather's house on Monday night alongside her mother Kimberly Cooper, 33.

Cooper; Paislee's dad Kirk Shultis Jr, 33; and her grandfather Kirk Shultis Sr, 57, were all taken into custody for allegedly keeping the young girl hidden in the home.

The father and son's mugs show them dead-eyed before a court appearance today.

Paislee was reported missing on July 13, 2019, from Cayuga Heights, , when she was four years old.

Her parents had reportedly lost custody of their two daughters and authorities had been scheduled to pick the girls up on that day, the reports.

While Paislee's older sister was in school, however, the couple allegedly fled with their youngest daughter.

Police now believe they were hiding Paisliee in Kirk Sr's home in Saugerties, 150 miles away from where she went missing, for the last two years despite multiple searches of the home.

Kirk Sr had told police he had not seen his grandaughter since she was reported missing.

Yet authorities received a tip on Monday that she was in the house and they conducted another search.

Saugerties police detectives, uniformed officers, state police detectives from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and uniformed state troopers executed the warrant at 8pm on Monday.

FOUR-HOUR SEARCH

An officer reportedly noticed something strange about the stairs after hours of searching and began to pull it up.

Detective Erik Thiele said he felt there was something strange about the construction of the stairs.

He was then able to see a blanket through the cracks in the wooden steps when he used a flashlight.

As they began to remove the steps, detectives reportedly saw "a pair of tiny feet."

Underneath, they found a “small, cold and wet” space with mother and daughter hidden.

Police described it as “a makeshift room, under a closed staircase leading to the basement of the residence."

PARENTS CHARGED

Cooper was charged with custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors.

She was also wanted on an active warrant from Ulster County Family Court.

She is being held in Ulster County Jail.

Kirk Shultis Jr was charged with the felony of custodial interference and the misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child.

His father also received a felony charge of custodial interference and the misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child.

The father and son were released with appearance tickets.

Cops say that Paislee had remained quiet while officers were searching the home for around four hours on Monday before she was discovered.

They added that it appeared obvious the hidden room was used frequently.

The young girl was taken to police headquarters where she was met by paramedics.

Police say she appeared “well taken care of and in good health.";

"The only problem is she hasn’t attended school and they weren’t educating her at the house," Police Chief Joseph Sinagra added.

SISTERS REUNITED

Paislee has now reportedly been reconnected with her legal guardian, who remains unidentified, at an undisclosed location.

She has also been reunited with her older sister, who the young girl said she still remembered.

Cops treated Paislee to a Happy Meal after her escape from the house after she spotted a McDonald's from the car and said she hadn't had one in a long time.

“The detective turned the car around and went into McDonald’s and got her food from McDonald’s,” Sinagra said.

After Paislee and her parents initially disappeared, Kirl Jr "resurfaced shortly afterward, cops said.

He claimed that Cooper had fled to Pennsylvania and he did not know where she and his daughter were.

COURT APPEARANCE

“He’s even gone to court and told the court he had no idea where the child was,” Sinagra said.

“It’s nice to know that the child’s been located and that the child is healthy and safe. That’s the most important thing at the end of the day.”

Poice said that on several occasions they “received leads that [Paislee] was at that house.

"A number of times we would go there and sometimes we were met with resistance and at other times they’d say, ‘oh, no, you can come in and look around. There’s nobody here. The child’s not here,'" Singra claimed.

“And our belief is that at times when we went into the residence, although we were given limited access, they were using this location to hide the child,” he added.

Cooper, Shultis Jr, and Sr are scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday at 3pm.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are still pending.