Posted on 08/14/2002 12:38:28 PM PDT by TexasRepublicans
Police confirm they've found baby snatched in Abilene Associated Press
Associated Press
1-month-old Nancy Crystal Chavez.
ABILENE - Authorities confirmed this afternoon they have found the Abilene baby abducted in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
A woman suspected of snatching the child was stopped in Quanah, 125 miles north of Abilene, about 9:30 a.m., Hardeman County Sheriff Randy L. Akers said.
The baby's kidnapping had set off Texas' first statewide Amber Alert today as authorities looked for the infant, who was abducted Tuesday from her minivan when her mother turned around to stow a shopping cart.
The mother screamed as she desperately tried to stop the getaway car and was dragged more than 30 feet in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Abilene, police said.
The FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers were helping Abilene police in the investigation.
"I have put this in the hands of the Lord," said the baby's father, Salvador Chavez, his voice trembling. "Hopefully, someone sees her, and we'll get our child as soon as possible."
Police said Margarita Chavez had just finished shopping about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday when she placed her three children, including a 2- and a 6-year-old, in her minivan.
She left the sliding door open as she stepped about 10 feet away to return a shopping cart, then saw a woman pulling the infant and car seat, which had not been fastened to the seat, out of the van and into another car.
Associated Press
Fingerprint expert Tammy McLean of the Abilene Police Department dusts for fingerprints on the van that the baby was in when kidnapped. "When you have this type of offense and this type of crime with an infant child, you can expect the people if they find out about it to want to get involved. That's exactly what we've seen," Abilene police Sgt. Kim Vickers said.
Margarita Chavez was taken to an Abilene hospital and treated for scratches, her husband said.
A man heard Chavez's screams and smashed into the passenger side of the fleeing car, possibly breaking the window, police said. Authorities said a second person may have been in the car with the abductor.
A surveillance video captured the car circling the parking lot in "some type of stalking manner" before the abduction, Vickers said.
Vickers said the video from the store parking lot was distributed to television stations, but the video was too grainy to show the car's license plate number.
The vehicle was described as late 1990s turquoise, mid-size, four- door sedan, possibly a Pontiac Grand Am or Buick Skylark.
The suspect was described as heavy set, 5-foot-6 to 5-8, with shoulder-length brownish blonde hair. She is believed to be in her late 20s or early 30s.
Cathy Nahirny of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the suspect fits the profile of a typical infant abductor: A woman between the age of 15 to 50 who often is overweight.
Many times, infant adductors are involved in rocky relationships and take babies out of a companion's desire for a child, Nahirny said. In most cases, she said, the abduction is an attempt to show they can provide "good" care to a child.
Infant abductions are rare in the United States, Nahirny said, with just 216 infant cases between 1983 and July.
"Given the millions of babies born each year, the chance that this is going to happen is very, very rare," she said.
Tuesday's abduction happened the day after Gov. Rick Perry announced the creation of a statewide Texas Amber Alert System.
The alert, which is being implemented over the next 30 days, is designed to help find abducted children by transmitting the information to television and radio stations.
The Abilene area does not yet have the system, a spokesman for KTXS television said. A dispatcher with the Department of Public Safety in Abilene said various police departments were notified of the abduction when the governor's office sent out faxes to the news media detailing the abduction.
Texas Department of Transportation officials programmed electronic highway signs with information on the missing child.
Abilene is about 170 miles west of Dallas.
GOOD LORD!!! I work in an Office full of these SUSPECTS!!!
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