Abducted Newborn Found After 24-Hour Search

ByABC News via logo
June 6, 2006, 7:59 AM

June 6, 2006 — -- A missing 5-day-old baby girl has been found safe and sound, more than 24 hours after her mother said she was abducted by a woman who had posed as a nurse in medical scrubs.

On Monday evening, police found Priscilla Nicole Maldonado abandoned in a car seat in an underground Lubbock, Texas, carport in 104-degree weather.

The alleged kidnapper, 33-year-old Stephanie Lynn Anderson Jones, led police to the child after she was taken into custody.

Priscilla's mother, Erica Ysasaga, said that she thought Jones was a nurse when they first met at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas.

"I trusted her and didn't think she'd turn around and steal my baby," Ysasaga said.

Lubbock police Lt. Roy Bassett said that a tip had led police to Jones, and that she had directed them to the baby. Jones closely matched the description the baby's family had provided of the woman who had visited it several times in the hospital last week and who had come to the home, Bassett said.

Nurses on duty remembered seeing the woman on repeated visits to the hospital, police said, but no one asked why she was not wearing the correct color of scrubs or why she had no identification badge, officials said.

"From what I understand, they don't check and identify every possible visitor who comes to the hospital," Bassett said. "She didn't make any attempt to take the baby from the hospital and didn't spark any suspicions."

After mother and baby were discharged from the hospital, Jones allegedly showed up at their home on Sunday, saying she wanted to enter Priscilla in a baby pageant.

Ysasaga said she was distracted for just a moment, and in that moment both Jones and the newborn vanished.

Police released a composite sketch Monday describing the suspect as 30 to 40 years of age, 5 foot 3 to 5 foot 6 inches tall, and 140 to 150 pounds with brownish-blond hair.

Bassett said police received an anonymous tip that suggested they contact a man in Lubbock. Police called the man and asked whether his wife had recently had a baby. The man said she had, but the details of his story made police suspicious.