Saturday’s Amber Alert and ultimate recovery of the two abducted children and ex-wife of David M. Larsen, 39, resulted in his arrest and extradition to Racine County after the FBI’s release of a kidnapping warrant Monday.

Four charges were filed against Larsen in Milwaukee after the weekend’s events. A criminal complaint filed said Larsen told investigators he hit his ex-wife, Teri Jendusa-Nicolai, of Wind Lake, Wis., in the head with a baseball bat after she threatened him with a hammer. He was charged in Racine County with attempted first-degree intentional homicide while armed, kidnapping while armed and two counts of interfering with child custody.

Larsen was arrested Saturday after going to work at the Palwaukee Municipal Airport in Wheeling, Ill., where he is employed as an air-traffic controller.

“He was found by our department placing a call with the Wheeling, Ill., police department,” dispatcher K. Langendorf of the Racine County Sheriff’s Department said. “We asked them to check the airport where he works, which is where he was taken into custody.”

Larsen’s ex-wife was later found severely beaten and was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., after her rescue Sunday from a storage locker in Wheeling, Ill. Nineteen hours after her initial 911 call at approximately 1 p.m. Saturday, while allegedly tied up and under a tarp in the bed of her ex-husband’s truck, Jendusa-Nicolai was found.

Before Jendusa-Nicolai’s rescue from the garbage can she was stuffed inside while bound in duct tape, her two young children, Amanda, 6, and Holly, 4, were found in Elmwood Park, Ill. Larsen allegedly dropped them off with a babysitter.

The finding of the two children has been largely attributed to the Amber Alert system, which is a national emergency child-abduction alert.

“Its purpose is to save the life of a child,” reads the Amber Alert statement of purpose.

Langendorf said the sheriff’s office received a report of the kidnapped children, which prompted them to fill out the general information prior to submitting the report to Dane County.

“Dane County disseminates this information nationwide,” Langendorf said.

Upon receiving the information, radio and television stations interrupted regularly scheduled programming with an emergency tone. The tone is similar to the one used on television to warn residents about severe weather conditions.

“In a collaborative effort, the partnership brings law enforcement, broadcasters and communities together working toward the same goal, in an effort to better protect and safeguard our children,” concludes the statement of purpose.