Aubrey Coy

The Syracuse woman who led Michigan police on a high speed chase after abducting her 5-year-old daughter from a supervised visitation lost her parenting rights approximately a year ago. But at least one family member said she would never knowingly put her daughter in danger.

Police have confirmed that Aubrey Coy, 34, was high on cocaine when she tried to outrun police with her daughter on her lap. (See related)

When she was released from jail a little over a year ago after serving time for methamphetamine-related charges, Coy was granted only supervised visits with her daughter. According to a family member, those visits had gone off without a hitch, until Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, Coy was having a court-approved supervised visit with her 5-year-old daughter at her own mother’s Syracuse home. The property where the visitation was happening is large and was often explored by Coy and her daughter during visits. “It was not unusual for them to take walks out through the field or just play outside,” said the source. “People are trying to make it sound like [the grandmother] is to blame, but she’s the one who called police as soon as she realized they were gone.”

Additionally, while Coy’s family is not condoning her actions or behavior, they say it’s possible that, in a drug induced state, she felt she was protecting her daughter from what she considers another bad situation. With the story now making national headlines — HLN’s Nancy Grace featured the story tonight — one of Coy’s relative says the media is not getting the entire story.

According to the source, and confirmed by court documents, Coy was subpoenaed on Monday to testify against Melissa Milos, the stepmother of the 5-year-old girl. Milos was arrested in August 2013 for allegedly battering Coy. Milos is currently charged with a Class C misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. “There’s pictures in this case, too, and Melissa had no injuries but Aubrey did,” said the source.

Coy’s family member says that, despite her drug addiction, “… she would do anything to protect her daughter. I’m not condoning anything she did, but there’s a lot more to this story. The dad and stepmother put on a good front, but they’ve gone to extremes to keep (Coy) from seeing her daughter and even [her grandmother]. She was obviously wrong and I’m sure it was the drugs.”

Coy could still face charges in Kosciusko County, but so far, none related to Sunday’s incident have been filed.

In Michigan, she faces 7 felony charges including drug possession and fleeing law enforcement.