Kidnapped baby returned to parents

ABILENE, Texas -- A month-old infant snatched from her family's minivan by a woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot was found unharmed Wednesday more than 100 miles away, authorities said. A former prison guard was charged with kidnapping.

The recovery of Nancy Crystal Chavez was the "answer to a lot of prayers," police Sgt. Kim Vickers said.

The infant was reunited Wednesday night with her parents, Margarita and Salvador Chavez, at the Abilene police station about 125 miles from where the girl was found.

"I don't have sufficient words to say thanks, and I ask God that he blesses each one of you. God bless America," Salvador Chavez said as his wife rocked the infant during a news conference.

Nancy was found in the west Texas town of Quanah when a sheriff stopped a car that matched the description provided by Texas' first statewide Amber Alert, a media-driven warning system used to track down missing children.

Police said the suspect, Paula Lynn Roach, 24, was being held on a charge of aggravated kidnapping. Police did not offer a motive. She was returned to Abilene and was being held in the Taylor County jail. It wasn't immediately clear if she had obtained an attorney.

The baby, Roach and Roach's mother were pulled over in Quanah after authorities received a tip from a nearby nursing home where Roach had gone to show off the baby, police said.

Employees at the home, where Roach's mother works, said they noticed the baby's pierced ears and healed navel and decided the baby could not be a day old, as Roach had claimed.

Hardeman County Sheriff Randy Akers, who stopped the vehicle, said he took the baby and asked the women to follow him to the Sheriff's Department, where he said Roach eventually confessed. Roach's mother was not charged and apparently believed the infant was her granddaughter.

James Duke, warden at the Robertson prison unit in Abilene, told the Associated Press that the suspect worked as a corrections officer for about 20 months before resigning in September 2000. Vickers said Roach had lived in Abilene for the past several months and worked at a convenience store.

Police said Margarita Chavez had finished shopping Tuesday afternoon and had placed her three children -- Nancy, a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old -- in the minivan. She stepped about 10 feet away to return a shopping cart, then saw a woman pulling her infant and car seat into another car.

The frantic mother desperately tried to stop the getaway car and was dragged more than 30 feet in the parking lot.

"I yelled, 'That's my baby -- don't take my baby,' but she run ... then I tried to pull her hair or something through the window," Margarita Chavez recalled Wednesday night after being reunited with her baby. Her arms were bandaged and she had bruises on her face. "I was hanging on the window and I couldn't hold anymore so I fall."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright