Strollerderby : kidnapping

Why Are We So Shocked When Women Kill?

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:01:00 GMT

We may never know why a 28-year-old Sunday School teacher, a woman described as a "mother hen," allegedly killed her own daughter's young playmate, but the Friday arrest of Melissa Huckaby in the murder of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu has rocked the small town in which both lived. Part of the surprise came from the two families' acquaintance -- they both had mobile homes in the same small Northern California town, and the two girls played together often -- and part from the rarity of a woman being accused of this kind of crime. The local police chief was quoted expressing surprise, citing FBI statistics on child murders.

Huckaby is a pastor's granddaughter and the mother of a five-year-old girl. It was to her house that Sandra was seen skipping in the last known video footage of the girl, whose body was found in a suitcase owned by Huckaby in an irrigation pond. Although some of her friends and relatives are quoted describing Huckaby as a kind mother and maternal figure to her eight younger siblings, others refer to mental and emotional troubles.

When women kill children, it's almost always their own babies and kids, almost always due to postpartum psychosis (a much more rare and severe syndrome than postpartum depression). The kidnapping and murder of another family's child seems particularly chilling when carried out by a woman with kids of her own -- yet it's unsettling to realize how unsurprising we find it when men kidnap and murder little girls.

Huckaby was arrested after a six-hour interrogation; police have no other suspect in the case. One can only hope that if she's found guilty she will at least no longer pose a threat to any other children, including her own.

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Dad Finds Kidnapped Kids in a Week, Cops Tried for Six Months

JeanneSager — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:50:00 GMT

I've got a hearty respect for the boys (and women) in blue. With two state troopers in my family, you don't hear me saying a whole lot against the cops.

But to the police who spent six months searching for two boys kidnapped by their mother . . . only to be shown up by dad, who found them in a week, I've got to ask: what were you doing all this time?

The boys, ten and eleven, went missing from their Australia home when their mom, a Swedish citizen, grabbed them and ran in October. Suspected to have returned to her native Sweden, the mom became wanted there, and police started searching for the boys.

But after six months of waiting in Australia for word, Dad decided he'd had enough. He hopped a plane from Melbourne, rented a car and parked it outside the home of the boy's grandparents - the parents of their mother. He says now he had a hunch they were harboring the fugitive mother. Let's hear it for dads' intuition!

He was right. After a week of staking out the place, he snuck up to the door late one night only to hear the voices of his sons inside. He called the cops, who raided the house and came up with the fugitive mother and the missing boys. Mom is now in custody, and the boys are back with dad.

It's got a happy ending, but isn't this kind of obvious? When someone goes missing, don't you check with their parents first? I don' tknow about you, but I'd like to think my kid would come to me first if she were in trouble!

Image: TheSimpsons

School Helps Child Escape Dad for the Big City

JeanneSager — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:34:00 GMT

A teenage boy's allegations that his father abused him may have won him enough sympathy that school officials kidnapped him.

The fifteen-year-old didn't come home from his South Carolina high school one day, but when his desperate father went to police, he soon learned the boy had taken off for his mother's home in New York.

Keith Jenkins has legal custody of his son, but he alleges the boy's principal and a school janitor ignored that when they helped the teen catch a Greyhound bus headed northward. The school staff has told police the boy claimed he was being abused - allegations, by the way, that the police say have been investigated and were unfounded.

Even if a child were being abused, how does a school principal decide the best option is to put a teenager on a bus for a ten- to twelve-hour trip, with no idea what is going to happen next? New York City isn't the scary, scary place that some people make it out to be, but for a kid, alone, especially a kid unfamiliar with the city, pulling up in the Port Authority is not exactly a safe alternative. Did they know what he was going to do once he got there? That he wasn't headed up to the city to meet a stranger he'd been chatting with online or to try to seek his fame and fortune as a fifteen-year-old rock star (come on, teenagers watch a LOT of TV)? That his mother was any better parent than his father?

A court had already given his father legal custody - apparently for a reason. So why did school officials think they were smarter than a judge?

School officials have no business mediating divorce and custody disputes. That's why there are family courts, judges, social workers. . . The same goes for child abuse allegations. The school is mandated to report them - and that's where it should end. Their business is in being there for kids, which puts them much too close to the issue to look at it objectively. Child abuse allegations are serious - but sometimes, they're just allegations. Kids lie sometimes (often for attention), and anything less than a thorough investigation doesn't help anyone.

How would you feel if your school district was stepping in to your divorce?

Image: NYCSubway.org

Some Good News in Cross-Continental Custody Battle

JeanneSager — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:32:00 GMT

Remember David Goldman, the Jersey dad whose wife up and moved to Brazil, cutting him off without a chance to see their four-year-old son? The story got us all ferklempt, not to mention righteously indignant on Dad's behalf when it came to light on the Today Show last fall.

Put down your pitchforks parents! Four years after his wife took off, divorced him, remarried and died, Goldman finally got to see his son this week.

It's a two tissue box tale if there ever was one. Goldman bid son Sean and wife Bruna goodbye at Newark International Airport in June 2004. He thought they were simply going to visit Bruna's family in her native Brazil, and they'd be home in due time.

Then he got word from Bruna that she wasn't coming back. Oh, and by the way, she wanted a divorce. Court battles ensued, but Goldman couldn't get past the Brazilian roadblocks, and his wife had remarried a "well-connected" Brazilian attorney who was helping her every step of the way. Then came word that Bruna had died during childbirth in August 2008. David Goldman thought he finally had a chance at his son; only to hear that the attorney was filing for a name change to take Goldman's off of Sean's birth certificate.

When the story became public, politicians from the U.S. stepped in to help. New Jersey Congressman U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, traveled to Brazil this week with Goldman, securing visitation for father and son while he put pressure on the Brazilian government, warning them that they are violating the Hague Convention, an international adoption treaty.

It's not over yet, but can you imagine having been the fly on the wall for that meeting between father and son? We'd be talking a three-tissue-box story then.

Now Goldman's supporters are looking for letters to be sent to Congressmen who will help co-sponsor a bill - along with Smith - to call for Brazil to conform under the Hague Convention rules and send Sean (and American citizen) home with his father to the states. Get a look at the bill and a list of congressmen here.

Image: Bring Sean Home.org

Twenty-Year-Old Kidnapping Solved

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:59:00 GMT

A California judge will decide today whether Marvin Maple, now known as John Bunting, will be sent back to Tennessee to face kidnapping charges for taking two of his grandchildren from their parents back in 1989. Maple and his late wife had been caring for two of their daughter Debbie's kids while her husband was pursuing a divinity degree out of state. They had sought custody of the children -- at the time, ages seven and eight -- alleging abuse by the parents. When a court found no evidence of abuse, the grandparents took the children and fled, moving to California and renaming the children (formerly Bobby and Christie) Jonathan and Jennifer Bunting.

Now in their twenties, Jennifer and Jonathan Bunting have not spoken to the press about their situation, but it's expected they will meet with their parents and two additional siblings at some point. It's not yet clear what kind of brainwashing Maple carried out when he removed the children from their parents, but it seems likely there was some.

The case, which had languished in the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit, was broken thanks to someone's affection for old, corny television shows. Late in December, a tipster who was watching an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries that mentioned the missing Baskin kids and reported seeing them in the San Diego area in around 2000. Detective Sgt. Dan Goodwin in Tennessee contacted newspapers in the San Diego area and asked them to run stories soliciting sightings and encouraging the public to contact Tennessee authorities. Eventually this led to a email from San Jose, where a neighbor of Maple's had seen the coverage and wanted to right a long-past wrong.

Back when the Baskin children were taken from their parents, there was a national hysteria over abuse, with dozens of false abuse charges -- many involving allegations of Satanic rituals -- clogging the courts. In addition, there was a growing movement of grandparents' rights, in which children were often used as a pawn in power struggles between two generations of adults with different ideas about how kids should be raised. Seen in this context, it's not that surprising that the Baskin case happened -- but it's a wonderful surprise that it was solved. It may take years and tons of counseling to help this family heal from what happened to it, but that process can now begin.

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Police Called on 10-Year-Old Riding Train Alone

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

The nervous nellies strike again. This time a 10-year-old boy was riding on the Long Island Railroad to see his friend last Friday. His friend's family was going to pick him up at the station. He'd done the ride dozens of times before. LIRR has no policy about what age is too young to ride alone, but his mom had talked to them before his first ride, and they said 10 sounded fine.

But not to one hovering conductor, who not only called the police, but wouldn't talk to the boy's mother when he called her after being harassed. Mr. conductor then held up the train at the station the boy was traveling to and wouldn't let him leave with his friends' parents until the police came and basically told the guy he was overreacting and should chill.

The scary thing is, these days, one could just as easily believe the police taking the conductor's side and charging the parents with negligence or some such nonsense. I've heard of some very scary official reactions to children who were well-trained in safety precautions doing exactly what they were supposed to do with the full knowledge, but not immediate presence, of their parents.

This particular story was posted over at Free Range Kids, a site devoted to reclaiming kids' rights to move about freely in the world. Lenore Skenazy, the columnist who founded it, writes that at the same time as she was being depicted as a devil in the media for writing about the freedom she gave her son, individuals kept coming up to her and recounting what they'd been able to do as a kid and how much they'd valued it.

It's true for me: I walked alone to the bus stop starting at 6 or 7, school itself at 9, and wandered my block and then my neighborhood freely from around then too. And the world actually hasn't gotten anymore dangerous since then, at least not in any of the ways people cite when they say this is a bad idea. (Of course even when I was a teenager and my mother told me to take a bus to the mall, the people around her reacted as if she'd asked me to go panhandle outside a strip club. But sadly, that was probably at least as much to do with the class difference of who takes short-distance buses vs trains in NJ as with stranger paranoia.)

What about you? Are you more worried about what might happen to your kids (or you) if they are given their freedom, or if they aren't?

Photo by Spring Dew.

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Son of America's Most Wanted Creator, Adam Walsh, Murder Solved

JeanneSager — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:55:00 GMT

Before there was Caylee, there was Adam. The six-year-old boy who went missing and was later found dead spurred his distraught father, John Walsh, to create America's Most Wanted, the TV program that's been credited with getting more than one thousand dangerous fugitives off the street.

Now, twenty-seven years after Adam Walsh went missing, Florida police have announced the man responsible for killing the little boy - responsible for setting a father on a lifelong mission to rid the world of bad guys, has been positively identified. He's been dead for more than a decade.

Ottis Toole is the man John Walsh has long thought killed his little boy. Toole twice confessed to grabbing the boy in a Hollywood, Fla. mall and later dropping his head in the water - to be discovered in a canal one hundred twenty miles from where he first went missing some two weeks after his disappearance. Toole later recanted each confession, and the Walshes have long criticized police for botching the investigation.

Today, Hollywood Florida Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said it's his department's "determination and conclusion that Ottis Toole was the abductor and murderer of Adam Walsh."

If the missing Lindbergh baby was the child kidnapping that changed the way parents looked at strangers, the Adam Walsh disappearance was the one that made parents take action. It forced them to not only be more cautious, but to stand up for child security measures in schools and daycare centers, to expect others to take better care of their children.

On the Website for his TV show, John Walsh and wife Reve said today that they can finally move forward, at least knowing who killed their little boy.

"We, along with our children, Meghan, Callahan and Hayden, pray for the thousands of parents of murdered and still-missing children. We continue to fight for their safety, and to make sure that no child -- especially Adam -- died in vain."

Do you think the Adam Walsh case changed America?

Image: NBC

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Scary Teen Kidnappers Going to Jail

Amy Kuras — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:19:00 GMT

This story is fairly chilling, but has a happy ending. An 18-year old woman who, with a friend, kidnapped another pregnant teen with the intention of cutting her baby out of her womb in a suburban Kansas city motel was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year. Police said Lauren Gash had allegedly told people she was pregnant and even set up a registry. Her co-defendant, Alisa Betts, pled guilty last week to a charge of kidnapping and first-degree assault.

Betts and Gash allegedly contacted Amanda Howard through a MySpace ad for baby items, and promised to pick her up at her home in Clinton, Mo., drive her to Kansas City to collect some baby clothes, and then take her back. Instead they pepper-sprayed her and took her to the motel in Blue Springs, where they bound her with duct tape and were about to begin slicing her open with a craft knife when police burst in – tipped off by Betts, who got cold feet.

Yeee-ikes. Howard is apparently doing well after her traumatic experience, as is her baby son.

Another scary case happened in Kansas three years prior, when someone kidnapped a woman and actually did cut the baby out of her womb, killing the mother. Is there something that breeds baby-stealing psychos in the water out there? The only person I know from Kansas is very nice and not at all psychotic. And what the hell makes an 18-year old so insanely desirous of some else’s baby?

Is Your Husband Really Who You Think He Is?

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:26:00 GMT

We've all heard about Clark Rockefeller, the dad who kidnapped his seven-year-old daughter, Reigh Boss, during a supervised visit in Boston on July 27. But each new detail that has emerged since Rockefeller was arrested Saturday in Baltimore is more and more chilling: first, authorities discovered that Rockefeller is only one of several aliases used by this man, and they have no clue as to his real identity - he claims not to remember anything about where he was born or where his parents are. Now, police say that fingerprints tie Rockefeller - or whatever his real name is - to the murders of a California couple in 1985.

What do you make of all this if you are Sandra Boss, Reigh's mom and Rockefeller's ex-wife?

It's true the two are divorced. But I'm sure Boss would never have married him in the first place if she had even an inkling about how deeply her husband was deceiving her. And it has to affect your confidence in your own judgment to find out that you married a possibly homicidal con artist instead of a descendant of the famous Rockefeller family - members of which have repeatedly told the press they have no connection whatsoever to this man. After all, Boss is not some 18-year-old naive farmer's daughter - she's a senior partner in the London office of McKinsey & Co who was married to Rockefeller for 12 years.

I look at my husband and I think that this could never happen to me. But that's because we live in the same area in which my husband grew up, surrounded by his parents, sister and cousins, as well as many friends who have known him since he was as young as four. I can't help but wonder how confident other couples can be . . .

Kidnap dad caught

Brett Singer — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:20:00 GMT

Clark Rockefeller, the divorced father who kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter during a scheduled parental visit, was in a Baltimore courtroom this morning. Curious about what he was wearing? Me neither, but the Boston Herald tell us that he was "shackled at the legs and wearing a Lacoste shirt, khaki pants and loafers," which the reporter describes as "preppy."

What's unclear at the moment is just who this guy is. Baltimore prosecuting attorney Patricia Deros told the press that Rockefeller "looks like Woody Allen" (objection, counselor – relevance?), and also that they don't have a name for him other than Clark Rockefeller. Apparently he's quite wealthy, and has been described as a "fake Rockefeller," or, as the Daily News put it, Crockefeller. (Which really should be somebody's rap name, but that's a different topic.) I'm not clear on how it is that he's not a real Rockefeller but just uses the name, or if he's an unrelated Rockefeller (which, in my opinion, would sort of suck because then everyone would always expect you to pick up the tab, even though you're not really that rich.) The Boston Herald says that the allegedly kidnapping pop has "no passport or driver’s license and police have struggled to piece together his life prior to the early 1990s, before he married Boss." What I find odd is that the ex-wife hasn't provided police with more information, although of course it's possible that she did and we haven't heard about.

If you missed it, the basic details of the case appear to be that Clark Rockefeller was married to a woman named Sandra Boss, with whom he fathered a daughter named Reigh, although they called her "Snooks." They got divorced, Boss won full custody and moved to London. On a scheduled – and supervised – visit to Boston, the father jumped into a moving SUV with Red Sox stickers on the back (no comment). The social worker that was supervising the visit hung onto the vehicle as it pulled away. The drivers of the SUV were duped into helping him (I would say that this must have been easy because they were Red Sox fans, but that's going too far). In one of those details that you file under "if you wrote this in a script no one would believe it", he had purchased a house on Ploy Street in preparation for living under the name Chip Smith.

Anyway, he's been caught, and as far as I can tell the little girl is OK. If you want a timeline of articles about this case, click here. It's a weird story, and at least he's in custody.

image: NY Daily News

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Body Found in "Baby Buyer’s" Apartment

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:30:00 GMT

The story of the Pennsylvania woman who told police that she paid $1,000 for a baby has a taken a turn for the worse. Tragically, it appears that the dark suspicions of some commenters to my first story about Andrea Curry-Demus (pictured) were well founded: police have found a woman's body in Curry-Demus’ apartment. A placenta was discovered nearby.

This is not the first time that Curry-Demus has attempted to steal babies: In 1990, she stabbed a woman in a ploy to kidnap her infant. The day after the stabbing, she took a baby out of Children’s Hospital and brought the infant to her apartment. Police found the baby there the next day, unharmed. Curry-Demus pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation, a sentence that, in retrospect, was far too lenient. Curry-Demus has also been found guilty of theft.

She will remain in jail unless she can post $10,000 bond and agrees to be examined by a psychiatrist.

Photo: New York Daily News

Woman Claims She Paid $1,000 for a Baby

After Miscarriage, Woman Paid $1,000 For a Baby

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

This is perhaps the most bizarre tale of child endangerment that you’ll ever read—and, thank God, the baby involved is unharmed, though in need of loving parents.

A Pennsylvania woman named Andrea Curry-Demus called paramedics last week and said she had just given birth prematurely. She was rushed to the hospital with an infant whose umbilical cord was still attached. Doctors were immediately suspicious of the woman’s story since the baby appeared to be full-term. After examining Curry-Demus, they determined that she had not given birth and called the police. Blood and hormone tests later revealed that Curry-Demus is not the baby’s mother.

The 38-year-old woman told police that she had a miscarriage in June, but she didn’t want to disappoint her mother by telling her the truth. So she befriended a pregnant woman named Tina, and arranged to give Tina $1,000 for her baby. According to Curry-Demus, Tina showed up at her apartment carrying the newborn, with the umbilical cord still attached. That's when Curry-Demus called an ambulance.

The healthy baby remains at the hospital while police try to identify who the birth mother is. Curry-Demus, who faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child, claims she's done nothing wrong.

Photo: totalbabyguide.com

Update:

Body Found in Curry-Demus' Apartment

Mentally Impaired Mom Loses Seventh Child To Foster Care

Amy S.F. Lutz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:04:00 GMT

How did a story about a kidnapping evolve into a raging debate about state-sponsored sterilization in the Philadelphia media?

It started when two-month-old Shaniyah Grantby disappeared last Saturday. Her mother, Tiesha Pitts, 26, had let another woman take Shaniyah to the store, and that woman - later identified as Clarissa Hanton, 23 - never brought her back.

When Shaniyah was found Monday, it seemed like a happy ending. Until it came out that Tiesha entrusted her child to someone whose full name and address she didn't even know. And that she waited more than 24 hours to report the baby missing.

So the Department of Human Services placed Shaniyah in foster care temporarily while they investigate the family. But maybe DHS already knows enough: Shaniyah is Tiesha's seventh kid, and it turns out the other six are all in foster care.

Tiesha's mother, Ernestine Pitts-Rainey, said that Tiesha has "the mind of a 12-year-old," and suffers from emotional and developmental disorders.

This revelation enraged many Philadelphians who had been rooting for Shaniyah's safe return - an anger reflected in comments on local websites covering the story: "Why was this woman not stopped from procreating by her own parents . . . Norplant was a wonderful thing," wrote one reader.

A fair question. Shouldn't Tiesha's mother have put her on some kind of long-term birth control before she was 18, knowing what she knew about Tiesha's disabilities?

Another reader stated, "The state of PA does have the right to make this young woman be sterilized because she is mentally challenged." And although the thought of forced sterilization makes me queasy, I have to admit I can't think of a better solution in a case like this. Tiesha is only 26. If she continues to pop out babies at the current rate, she could easily have ten more children - kids whose safety might be comprised while under her care, and, should they be placed in foster homes, would face a terribly uncertain, difficult road. Never mind the strain on already stretched public resources.

Philadelphia Daily News photo

Maternity Ward Nightmare, Part Two: Baby Napper Pretended to Be Pregnant

Jen Chaney — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:10:00 GMT

I posted an item on Saturday about a woman in Sanford, Fla., who managed to disguise herself as a nurse and successfully walk out of a hospital with a newborn infant in a tote bag. The infant was recovered a short time later and the alleged babynapper, 39-year-old Jennifer Latham, was arrested.

But that was only the beginning of this story. It gets even freakier.

For starters, Latham had told relatives she was nine months' pregnant and expecting a child any day. "We went shopping for baby clothes and all kinds of stuff," her sister told ABC News.

This comment prompted me to do the natural thing: Find out if Latham was registered. And indeed, a Jenny Latham of Sanford, Fla. with a due date of March 18 is registered at Babies R Us. None of the items has been purchased but, in case you're wondering, the nursery theme is "Soft and Fuzzy Pooh." (I call dibs on the ice cream cone socks!) Assuming this is the same Latham, this strikes me as potential evidence of a premeditated crime.

Other interesting details about the case also have emerged. According to the Orlando Sentinel, she tried to take another child first. While wearing a nurse's uniform, she entered a mother's room and said she needed to take her infant for an eye and ear exam. When the mother said the child had already undergone such exams, Latham left and entered the room of Mother No. 2. Once again, she asked to take the baby for an eye exam. And this time, understandably, the mom said yes, which is how Latham got her hands on the child she seemingly planned to pass off as her own.

On the legal side of things, a judge had ruled to release Latham from jail and put her on home detention pending a hearing. But it looks like that decision, which was based on the fact that Latham had no criminal record, could be overruled. Because, as it turns out, she may have a criminal record.

According to Fox 35 Orlando, she was arrested a few years ago in Indiana on several felony charges and two misdemeanors. And another Orlando station reports that Latham may have gone by an alias and possessed at least two Social Security numbers.

In other words, kids, this is one hot, maternity-ward mess. I personally can't get over the fact that Latham pretended to be pregnant and her relatives believed her. Based on photographs, she looks like a heavier woman so maybe it was hard to tell. But by the time the ninth month rolls around, a baby bump of some kind is usually pretty apparent.

Did she buy maternity clothes? Did she fake morning sickness in order to keep the ruse going? And just what did she plan to do if she had successfully swiped the kid? Seems like that level of fakery could only last for so long.

But perhaps the most important question is: If any of her friends threw her a shower, how totally stupid do they feel right now?

Clearly Latham -- who looks a little like Kathy Bates in "Misery" -- has some mental health issues, which hopefully she can address after spending some time in prison.

I want to close with this important note. For those of you who expressed genuine concern that this could happen to you, consider the statistic quoted by ABC News: Only 120 babies have been abducted from U.S. hospitals in the past 20 years. So the odds of this happening to you are very small. In case you hadn't already figured it out, a babynapper like Jennifer Latham is one in a million.

Photo: Local6.com

Your Worst Maternity Ward Nightmare

Jen Chaney — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:30:00 GMT

We've all had this thought after delivering a baby. In that post-C-section haze, as we hand our wee one off to a nurse so he can get weighed, we fleetingly wonder: Could someone kidnap my child during these few minutes he is out of my sight? And then we think, nah.

But apparently that's exactly what happened yesterday in Sanford, Fla. The good news is that the infant was found fairly quickly and has since been reunited with the parents. Weirdly, this occurred just two days after a 10-year-old in Kansas City met the FBI agents who rescued her when she was abducted 10 years ago from a Kansas hospital.

In the Florida case, 39-year-old Jennifer Latham reportedly changed into hospital scrubs, posed as an employee and placed the child in a large blue tote bag, then slipped by hospital security and left the grounds. Police tracked her down about 90 minutes later and found the newborn unharmed. Officials say the woman was not related to the child or the parents, and that this appears to have been a random abduction attempt.

I believe these abductions are rare, but that doesn't mean news of this latest incident won't make everyone even more paranoid about parting with their kids during hospital stays. I predict that fewer women will want to deliver at Central Florida Regional Hospital, where the Sanford kidnapping occurred, because they'll hear this story and get freaked. I also predict that moms-to-be at other hospitals across America will start asking plenty of detailed questions about the security at those institutions. Which isn't such a bad thing. It's unlikely someone will walk off with your newborn while she's in the hospital nursery. But as the daily news invariably proves, anything is possible.

Photo: Local6.com

Some Financial Advice for a Pop Diva

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Rather than pay $600,000 for 12 bodyguards, JLo need only invest in one of these space age doohickies that harnesses the power of electricity to protect kidnappable infants.

Max and Emme (or was that Toby and Tutu?) will sleep better at night knowing that their crib is wired for sound. Should anyone reach over the rails to pick them up, alarms will shriek and JLo will come running. Or send the help to come running. Or dust off waxen Marc Anthony to go running.

There will be running, is what I'm saying, should the alarm sound.

It seems like the combo of babies who frequently leak and electricity is probably not the wisest idea. But, hey, anything to save a few pennies in these troubled economic times.

Photo credit: boingboing.net

Give This Girl Best Babysitter Award

Kelly Mills — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:32:00 GMT

We often cover stories of babysiters who do less-than-responsible things, like leave the kids in their care alone or give them alcohol or other unsavory stuff. So it seems only right--and a welcome break--to report on a babysitter who definitely deserves a medal and a raise, as well as unrestricted access to the contents of the fridge.

So what did this girl do that makes her such a star? She fought off a would-be kidnapper who tried to snatch the three-year-old girl in her care. When the babysitter opened her screen door to Normando Zamora Ramirez, he tried to grab the toddler. The babysitter fought back, and as he dragged them from the apartment, a neighbor heard the scuffle and restrained the guy, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, burglary and child abuse. So if anyone needs someone to watch the kids on date night, you can probably engage her services and go out with a little peace of mind.

7-Year-Old Girl Puts Herself Between Mom and Bullets

Kelly Mills — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:33:00 GMT

Hey, it's time to get weepy with the Derby. See, sometimes as parents we can barely write about the stuff in the news because we use up too many tissues and risk electrocution from tears on our laptops. But let's give it a go anyway: Selitha Parker dated Calvin Tillie for a few months before breaking it off. But Tillie kept calling and bothering Parker, and on December 2, when Parker and her 7-year-old daughter Alexis Goggins climbed into the SUV of a friend on the way to the friend's mom's birthday party, Tillie jumped into the backseat of the vehicle next to Alexis. He pulled a gun and forced them to drive around, until the friend convinced Tillie she needed to stop for gas and called 911 with the station attendant.

When she and the attendant heard shots they ran back to the vehicle, and saw Alexis curled up under the steering wheel in a pool of blood. She had leaped from the backseat to the front seat, shielding her mother with her body, saying, "Don't hurt my mother!" Six bullets hit Alexis, piercing her eye and striking her jaw and chin. She was blinded in that eye, and has undergone three operations since the shooting. Parker was struck with two slugs, and while seriously wounded, she was well enough to be released from the hospital a few days later. Tillie was arrested at the scene.

Parker said, "My baby is just an angel to her mother. I thought as the mother, I'd be saving my child. I never thought my daughter would be saving me." At Alexis' special education classroom at school (she has learning disabilities, suffered a stroke before age 1 and has epilepsy) classmates named a stuffed toy "Hero" and put it in her seat because they didn't want her chair to remain empty. Her teacher showed off her recent progress in writing letters in a journal. Parker's cousin said, "I know she can do it. There's no stopping Alexis. It may take her a little longer now because of this. But she is a fighter."

Feel free to sob without restraint.

Associated Press photo by Carlos Osorio

Jolie-Pitt Family Security Team Thwarts Kidnapping Plot

Alisyn — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:01:00 GMT

Though the Jolie-Pitt camp is downplaying the news, sources say that the family's security team learned of, the shut down, a well-known and feared Vietnamese gang's attempt to kidnap newly adopted Pax Thien Jolie, 3. The gang has a reputation for kidnapping and extortion.

According to Life & Style magazine, the gang's L.A. operatives hatched a "meticulously planned" plot to kidnap the boy and demand $100 million for his safe return. Rumors of kidnapping plots have swirled around the blended family before, but this is the first rumor deemed "credible and serious."

No harm has come to little Pax, or any of the other J-P kids, and it seems like they have a pretty reliable security team working for them. Sadly, it also seems like they really need them.

[Via TMZ]

Fake Nurse Snatches Baby From Mom at Hospital

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:45:00 GMT

A woman posing as a nurse snatched a newborn away from her family at the hospital, and police in Texas have begun a frantic search for the infant -- who is in need of medical care.

So if you happen to be the person police are looking for, please be aware the kid can't have milk. She's got jaundice and she needs to be dropped off somewhere safe right. now. If you don't happen to be the person and you live somewhere around Lubbock, Texas, check out the description of the kidnapper here, and keep your eyes open.

Police say the woman removed baby Mychel Darthard-Dawodu's security tag around her wrist and dashed out of the hospital. Maybe one security tag isn't enough. Our hospital used wrist tags and belly button tags -- something that should become universal in practice.

Peggy Jo Conner Admits Trying to Steal Neighbor's Unborn Baby

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:30:00 GMT

There was a time in my life when I was desperate for a child. It was all I could think about. I obsessed about it. I talked about it constantly. That said, not once, not even for a second, did it ever occur to me to take my pregnant neighbor out into a field, give her a c-section and claim the baby as my own. This is just one way that Peggy Jo Conner and I differ. In 2005, Peggy Jo did kidnap her pregnant neighbor so that she could steal the lady's baby and claim it as her own. Yesterday, Conner pled guilty from charges ranging from attempted homicide to trying to cut a fetus from her nearby resident's womb.

I'm thinking a better plea would have been insanity. If I were a juror I would completely buy it if the defense attorney said she was crazy. I know a lot of people who aren't right, and none of them have ever tried anything like this (that I know of).

CNN: Scaring the Crap out of Parents Globally

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:57:00 GMT

Do you want to read something really scary? CNN is reporting that children all over the world are being kidnapped, brainwashed and turned in to killing machines. Granted, a lot of these children come from war torn countries and some join up on thier own when they are orphaned, but the story is still terrifying. CNN says: 'These children, some as young as 8, become fighters, sex slaves, spies and even human shields.'

It is a tragedy. I wasn't even really aware of this an hour ago, and with a little research I can see it is all over the place. There are some human rights groups working on trying to do something about it, but it is often difficult to find the source. Some of these goups say that progess is being made, but we still need to do more.

The news remains a constant wealth of reasons to worry about your kids.

The Facts About The Facts On Missing Children

Patti — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:31:00 GMT

With the fresh exposure given to the subject of missing children recently after the recovery of two Missouri boys, the media has been full of statistics. Big, scary, ominous statistics. One of the biggest (scariest, most ominous) numbers I've heard bandied about on the news is this: 800,000. That is, according to various news outlets, the number of children that disappear in the United States every year.

800,000? Holy crap, that's a lot of kids! But are those statistics we're hearing, most of which are attributed to "experts" and "sources", accurate? Slate Magazine's Explainer column gets to the bottom of the question, and the results are, to me, simultaneously comforting and unnerving: 800,000 happens to be pretty damn close to the number of children reported missing in a twelve-month period in 2002. However, that takes into account a lot of different definitions of "missing", which Slate Explainer breaks down. Most of those reports weren't abductions of any kind, and most of the reports that were abductions were, as we're also frequently informed by the media, family related. Slate also notes the grey areas within the categories themselves.

The number of "stereotypical kidnappings", those that involve ransom, the intent to keep a child permanently, or death? 115. That puts those boys in Missouri in rare company, indeed.

Missing Missouri Boys Found Alive!

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:02:00 GMT

This is one of those horrifying missing child stories that, thankfully, has a happy ending for two sets of parents, and further supports my theory that all vans should be made out of the same material that makes Wonder Woman's airplane invisible.

Ben Ownby, 13, disappeared earlier this week while waiting for a bus near his home in rural Missouri. A massive search effort has been underway. Then today officers serving a warrant spotted a white van that matched the description of the one seen in the vicinity where Ownby disappeared.

When police searched the flat of the van owner, not only did they discover Ownby, but also Shawn Hornbeck, 15, a boy that has been missing for four years. Hornbeck went out to ride his bike in Washington County, Missouri and never came home. He was 11-years-old at the time.

Both boys appeared healthy and have been reunited with their parents. Kidnapping charges were levied against the white-van-owning scumbag, Michael Devlin, who is being held on $1 million bail, with more charges expected.

Also expected for Devlin: prison justice.

[photo credit of Shawn Hornbeck: Childsearch]