Snatched 3-Day-Old of Slain Mom Found Alive; Person Detained
Police say a woman shot the mom then took the baby.
April 17, 2012— -- A 3-day-old baby who was snatched from his mother by a woman who shot her at least six times in the parking lot of a Spring, Texas, pediatrician's office, has been found alive, and someone has been detained in the case, officials said.
Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said only that the infant, Keegan Schuchardt, had been found alive, but did not say where.
One person he described as a person of interest in the case has been detained, he said. He would give no other details about the recovery of the newborn or any suspected motive for the kidnapping, saying it is still an active investigation.
Sources told ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston that the lead to the newborn's whereabouts came when a SWAT team went into an apartment in a complex near the scene of the abduction.
The officers found a woman there talking on the phone with another woman, the sources said. They tracked the woman on the other end and found the infant at her home.
Sources say SWAT officers entered a unit at the Fawndale apartments on Sawdust at Sawmill and found a woman inside speaking on the phone with another woman. Investigators were then able to track the woman on the other phone to a home near FM 1960 in north Harris County, where Schuchardt was found.
Police have surveillance video from the center where Keegan was kidnapped, he said.
Police said the incident began when Kayla Marie Golden, 28, was standing by her pickup truck outside the pediatrician's office at around 2:40 p.m., and a car with a man and woman inside pulled up and there was some kind of argument.
The woman got out and shot the mother repeatedly with what was believed to be a 9mm pistol, then took the baby, Keegan, who was in his car seat, from the mother's pickup truck, police and witnesses said.
"She was laying on the ground. She wasn't moving for nothing," witness Joshua Jesson told ABC station KTRK in Houston. "But then I saw a blue Lexus drive off in that direction."
"The child was being put into the suspect vehicle and that's when the mother tried to get into the car," Lt. Dan Norris with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said. "The car sped away, knocking the lady to the ground."
The mother was rushed to a hospital, but died there, police said.
Officers searched a nearby apartment complex for the boy several hours after the abduction but did not find him, Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez told The Associated Press.
The baby boy who was kidnapped was wearing a green and white one-piece outfit with the word "Handsome" on the front.
The suspect was described as a black female wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, and carrying a small caliber pistol, possibly a 9mm.
She was reportedly last seen driving an ice blue Lexus four-door with an unknown license plate.
Police issued an Amber Alert for the child.