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CNN Live Today

Texas Kidnapper Likely Trying to Fill Need

Aired August 15, 2002 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, a mother's prayers answered and an abducted infant is now back home. Police in Texas say a tip from a nursing home led police to the kidnapper, tearful reunion of mother and child, and now a bizarre story of loss and of lies.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has been following the case. Let's check in with him and get the very latest first up this morning -- hello, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon. Well, just a quick update here on what's going on here in Abilene. We are expecting -- to have an appearance by Paula Lynn Roach here at the county court house in Abilene, just across the street here from the police department. We had originally anticipated that the judge was going to go see her in the jail this morning, but as it turns out it doesn't appear that is going to be the case. It looks like a lot of people are trying to work out the logistics of her arrival here at the courthouse. When that happens, we are going to try to bring that to you as soon as it happens here.

She is expected in court to be arraigned. She is being held on $200,000 bond. She has been charged with aggravated kidnapping, but so far, the story here -- and it has been a happy story, an unbelievably emotional story for the Chavez family as they allowed a news media camera to capture their reunion with their 1-month-old daughter, and Margarita Chavez, the mother of little Nancy, showing the scars that she endured while trying to save her child from the abductor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The abduction of 1-month-old Nancy Chavez unfolded before a Wal-Mart parking lot surveillance camera. The grainy view capturing the horrifying moment. Police say the highlighted car was driven by 24-year-old Paula Lynn Roach. The car circled the parking lot several times. Police suspect Roach was hunting for an unsuspecting target. That target turned out to be Margarita Chavez, and 1-month-old Nancy.

Margarita had just loaded Nancy and her two other children into a minivan. She turning away just a few seconds to return a shopping cart. In an instant, a parent's worst fear came to life. The surveillance camera showing the quick getaway, one of her three children now gone.

SALVADOR CHAVEZ, FATHER OF NANCY CHAVEZ: I want this -- for this person to return my child because no one is going to be as important -- no one is going to be as important as she is to me and to her mom. So please, return my child.

LAVANDERA: Warnings of the abduction fanned out across the state. Descriptions of the suspect quickly spread as well. Then around nine this morning, a tip that the baby and her alleged abductor were driving around the small Texas panhandle town of Quanah. Footprint analysis proved the baby was Nancy Chavez. Authorities more than one hundred miles away e-mailed a picture of the little girl to anxious family members and investigators, an image that proved everything would be OK, that little Nancy Chavez was safe in comforting arms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Now, some more information on Paula Lynn Roach. Police say she is 24 years old, and police also say that the moment she was pulled over in Quanah, Texas, which is a little town in the panhandle, about 125 miles away from Abilene that initially when she was questioned, the police officer asked her who the baby belonged to, and she told the police officers that it was hers, that she had had it just the day before.

We are also told by police that that's the same story she told her mother, who was in the car with her when she was pulled over, and she also told her stepfather that story, we understand, here in Abilene, although police are not believing the story that the mother and stepfather actually believed that story, anyway.

When the officer looked at the baby -- could quickly tell that it was not a day-old baby, and that is when they started figuring out that they had finally found Nancy Chavez -- Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: Well, Ed, there was something else I read this morning as well about Paula Roach, something about her having a miscarriage back in December that nobody else knew about?

LAVANDERA: Well, that was one of the points that officers made yesterday. I think in some of the initial questioning of Paula Lynn Roach, there was information that led police to believe that perhaps she had some -- was trying to fulfill some sort of need to have a baby of her own.

Remember, if you remember, police had pointed out in the surveillance video that Paula Lynn Roach had been circling around the parking lot. Police believe that she was just trying to find an easy target, if you will, at that moment.

But the initial reaction from police was that perhaps Roach was trying to figure out -- or trying to fulfill some need to have a baby of her own.

HARRIS: Boy, incredible story, but glad it had a happy ending yesterday. Ed Lavandera, reporting live for us this morning. Thanks, Ed.

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