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CNN Live At Daybreak
Abducted Child Found, Safe
Aired December 28, 2001 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A happy ending to tell you about. A nationwide search for an abducted child is over this morning after authorities found the toddler in West Virginia. The nightmare began on Christmas, when 16-month-old Jasmine Anderson vanished from a Chicago bus station. Reporter Craig Wall of CNN affiliate WFLD has the ending to this story.
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CRAIG WALL, CNN AFFILIATE WFLD REPORTER (voice-over): Marcella Anderson was smiling for the first time in three days after police showed her a picture of her rescued baby daughter, Jasmine.
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MARCELLA ANDERSON, BABY'S MOTHER: I knew automatically it was her in every picture. It was her. You couldn't not know.
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WALL: Police say the suspect, 33-year-old Sheila Matthews, stole 16-month-old Jasmine because she had told her boyfriend she had had his baby while he was in prison in California. His identity is not being released, because he has not been charged. Matthews face is blurred, because she has not yet been put in a police lineup. Police say Matthews told her boyfriend she had to go to Chicago from Williamson, West Virginia to get the baby.
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PHIL CLINE, CHIEF OF DETECTIVES: She has told him that her mother had it, that they would meet her mother in Chicago when they came to visit her boyfriend's family. When she went to the Greyhound station that night, she was looking to abduct a baby, and unfortunately, Marcella was there with Jasmine. And that's -- it was a crime -- it was spur-of-the-moment crime.
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WALL: Matthews met Anderson at the Chicago Greyhound station Christmas Eve and conned her into thinking she would give her a ride home to Milwaukee. While Anderson went to cash in her bus tickets, Matthews took off with Jasmine, setting off a nationwide manhunt. While Anderson and Jasmine's father waited for news of their missing daughter, police say Matthews celebrated Christmas in Broadview with her boyfriend's family and their supposed baby.
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CLINE: They were under the impression that this was her baby, and that everything was kosher, until when she left, they saw some of the news reports and that's what aroused their suspicion.
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WALL: But Wednesday night around 5:00 p.m., Matthews drove back to West Virginia with her boyfriend and baby Jasmine. Anderson says she picked Matthews out of a photo lineup, and that she looks a little different from the sketch that police made, but that doesn't change how she feels now that this nightmare is over.
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ANDERSON: I am relieved knowing that my baby is back and that she is going to be behind bars, and hopefully she has learned a very valuable lesson. I know I have.
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WALL: The FBI says Jasmine is fine, and this turns a potential holiday tragedy into a good news story. Anderson says her plans from here are simple.
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ANDERSON: Hopefully to go home as soon as possible and have our own Christmas.
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COSTELLO: With the little baby in tow. That was Craig Wall of CNN affiliate station WFLD reporting.
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