A 15-year-old girl who reportedly befriended an 18-year-old mother on the social media platform TikTok is now in custody as the prime suspect in the abduction of a three-month-old baby on Tuesday in Horizon Park, Spanish Town.
The suspected abductor was held some 114 miles away on Wednesday afternoon in Cambridge, St James, after The Gleaner published a story on stolen child, Roshane Malik Hall.
The child remains in state care and is being medically examined.
The child’s mother, Kenisha Hamilton, on Wednesday had pleaded for her former friend of four weeks to return her child safely.
“Mi nuh have her up. Mi text her and tell her if she can bring back mi baby mi nah cuss her. All if a money she want, mi just a ask her please bring back the baby and she don’t answer,” Hamilton said, adding that she had got no response up to noon on Wednesday.
The Cambridge police labelled the suspect as a troubled teen, who frequently runs away from her own home, and ended up in the parish of St Catherine, where she was living at one point.
Reports are that the infant was stolen from his mother at Horizon Park in St Catherine shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
It is further reported that shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a 42-year-old carpenter and his 20-year-old son, who live in a neighbouring St James community to the suspect, saw a photo of the missing child on social media and recalled seeing the teenage girl with a child fitting the description.
The men then carried out their own investigation and held on to the teen and took her to the Cambridge Police Station, where they made a report.
When questioned, the accused reportedly told the police that she had recently given birth to the child while in St Catherine and had just returned back home.
She finally confessed to the officers that she had stolen the baby on Tuesday.
She was taken into police custody and the child was taken to a medical facility for examination.
The child’s grandfather, Aston Hamilton, told The Gleaner that he regained his appetite after news emerged that his only grandchild had been found safe.
“Me must feel better. All eat me start ya now because from yesterday (Tuesday), mi nuh eat nuh food or nothing. Mi feel much better ya now. Just we fi get the call from the police when the baby a come up (to St Catherine),” Hamilton told The Gleaner.
The Gleaner learned that while the 15-year-old was in the custody of the St James police, a man turned up at the station, claiming that he was the child’s father.
He reportedly left the premises before the police could accost him.
The St James police are expected to transfer the suspect to their St Catherine North counterparts soonest.
Kenisha told The Gleaner that she was not a bad mother and expressed hope that people would not hold this incident against her.
She said her brother, in whose care the child had been left, had an error in judgement.
“Mi brother come in deh and tek up the baby, and [because] dem love walk, him bring him go a gate. Mi nuh expect her (suspect) a mi yard because me and her not friends anymore,” Hamilton said, adding that her brother gave the girl the child to hold on request.
The car she was in then sped away.
“Bout four weeks mi know her ... . Actually him (brother) think say me and her a friend, so she come in a one taxi. Mi frighten when me hear mi brother come and say, ‘Your friend just come and gone with the baby’,” Kenisha said.
She added that after they tried without success to reach the accused by phone, they made a report to the police.
The Spanish Town CIB is investigating.
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