By the CNN Wire Staff<script type="text/javascript">cnnAuthor = "By the CNN Wire Staff";</script>
Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A California girl who had been missing for almost seven years was found Wednesday by police in Phoenix, Arizona, authorities said.
Amber Rose Nicklas had just turned a year old when she was abducted in September 2003.
She had been in the care of foster parents in Norwalk, California, when she was snatched by three of her aunts, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County sheriff's Norwalk Station said.
Two of the aunts were caught at the time. The third got away with the child, said sheriff's spokesman Bill Evans.
The girl somehow ended up with a family in Phoenix that had no relation to her biological family, authorities said.
Authorities got a tip that Amber could be at a home in Phoenix and went there with a court order Wednesday afternoon.
When investigators tried to serve the court order, they found that a woman in the home had hidden the child in a shower under a pile of clothes and towels, said Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump.
Amber's identity had been changed, including her name and date of birth, police said.
"The child was in good physical condition; however, very frightened about today's events. She had also been withheld from schooling," Crump said.
Amber's real identity was confirmed through footprints, photographs and DNA swabs, police said.
The child, who is now 7, is in state custody in California and prosecutors will file charges, Crump said.
