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American Morning

Baby Girl Abducted from Chicago Bus Station Found Alive and Well

Aired December 28, 2001 - 07:03   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities say the baby girl abducted from a Chicago bus station on Christmas Eve has been found alive and well. Police recovered the 16-month-old toddler in West Virginia and arrested a woman from that state who they say abducted Jasmine Anderson.

CNN's Jeff Flock spoke with Jasmine's parents and picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixteen-month-old Jasmine Anderson was found in Williamson, West Virginia in the arms of this woman, who was passing herself off as her mother. This is Jasmine's real mother.

MARCELLA ANDERSON, MOTHER: I knew automatically it was her. I mean every picture, it was her. You couldn't not know.

FLOCK (on camera): The woman in the picture taken on Christmas Day is named Sheila Matthews. Police say she told her boyfriend that she'd had his baby while he was in prison. It wasn't true. So when he got out, she needed a baby and fast. She ended up at the Greyhound station here in Chicago on Christmas Eve.

PHILIP CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: 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 what, the crime was a spur of the moment crime.

FLOCK: We spent much of the day with Jasmine's parents retracing the steps of how it all happened at the bus station.

ANDERSON: She came up to about here and said how cute the baby was and all.

FLOCK: Marcella says the woman offered her a ride to Milwaukee and said she'd hold the baby while Marcella cashed in her bus ticket.

ANDERSON: She started to walk off to about here. She just stopped. And she made her way around the corner and we went after her and it was full over there and I couldn't find her.

FLOCK: But police were on the trail. All of the interviews she and Jasmine's father Greg Knowles had done apparently paying off.

CLINE: Thanks to the media. The media is the one that helped crack this case.

FLOCK: The family of Sheila Matthews' boyfriend heard news reports and turned her in. Marcella Anderson says she has learned her lesson.

ANDERSON: Not to trust everybody.

FLOCK: Even on Christmas Eve.

Jeff Flock, CNN, in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: For more on the investigation join us for an interview with FBI Special Agent Tom Kneir. He'll join us later this hour. He was instrumental in that investigation.

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