from Boston Globe:
>>Five hours earlier, police said, the mother, Catherine Trotta, 38, and an accomplice, Dennis J. Piper, had wielded a knife and billy club to kidnap Trotta's daughter, Grace Trotta, 5, and an unrelated boy, Christian Borey, 3, from a Marlborough foster home.
About three hours after the kidnapping, Christian was found unhurt in Malden, police said. Tips led police to Logan International Airport, where airport employees told authorities that Trotta had unsuccessfully sought to catch a flight out of the area.
(snip)
Trotta is scheduled to be arraigned in a Marlborough court today on four counts of kidnapping, one count of assault and battery, one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and one count of conspiracy. Piper would face the same charges if caught, police said.
[he was apprehended earlier today in Lynn]
The dramatic hotel rescue capped a frenetic day of searching after the 3 p.m. kidnapping, which triggered an Amber Alert, with flashing electronic road signs alerting motorists of the kidnappers' identities and media outlets relaying the information nearly nonstop all evening.
''I think the Amber Alert was critical. It really gets all systems up so everyone is focused on locating the children," said a State Police spokesman, Lieutenant Eric Anderson.
(snip)
''Obviously, we found her unfit," said Denise C. Monteiro, a state DSS spokeswoman, who said Trotta has had extensive substance abuse problems.
Apparently the foster father is Catherine Trotta's uncle; it was a "kinship foster" relationship.
As she was being hustled in to be booked, Trotta was heard saying that she put the child in the suitcase "to protect her". Apparently she felt that her daugher was being
molested. (Her boyfriend was found today at his condo
in Lynn.)