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American Morning

Police in Abilene, Texas Searching For Woman Who Snatched Infant

Aired August 14, 2002 - 09:15   ET

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

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, police in Abilene, Texas are searching for a woman who snatched an infant right out of her mother's van. One-month old Nancy Crystal Chavez was abducted Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store. Surveillance video captured the kidnapping. And if you look closely on the videotape, you can see her mother trying desperately to stop the vehicle from getting away. The baby's father pleading for her safe return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALVADOR CHAVEZ, BABY'S FATHER: Please return this child, and if someone has any information, please let us know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: For the latest on the investigation, Sergeant Kim Vickers, with the Abilene Police Department joins us live this morning.

Sergeant, good morning to you. Wish we could talk on a different topic.

With the dawn of new day there are there new developments?

SGT. KIM VICKERS, ABILENE POLICE DEPT.: Not really. Although we have very many leads that have been given to us, called in by the public. A lot of different directions we are going. And we are diligently, one by one, checking those out to see whether we can get this girl back home.

HEMMER: That surveillance videotape, how much does it help?

VICKERS: Honestly, it didn't help a whole lot. If you've watched it, it's pretty grainy, and it -- at the very best, it confirms the mother's story as to what happened here. We have tried some enhancements, both locally and through the FBI, and have been unable to get more detailed picture of that car.

HEMMER: That is unfortunate.

VICKERS: It's very unfortunate.

HEMMER: Listen, do you think the woman, the suspect here, was casing that car, waiting for those children? Or do you think more spontaneous than that? VICKERS: I think a little bit of combination of both. The surveillance video shows the woman circling that parking lot we counted at least five to seven times. What it appear to us, the indicators that this suspect was looking for an opportunity. I don't think she targeted this particular family until shortly before this incident took place. But it does appear that she was looking for an opportunity to seize a child. We've got other indications that kind of point to that, and we feel pretty confident that she had been looking for a while, looking for that opportunity. When it afforded itself, she seized it, and grabbed this child.

HEMMER: If you're confident on that front, how confident are you at a break in the case?

VICKERS: So far, we don't have anything we can point to say that we absolutely feel like we can find the child. However, profilers with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who have helped us greatly on this case, as I might add, many other agencies have jumped in to help us. These profilers tell us that is a very classic infant abduction case, the circumstances, the way it was had taken place, the suspect profile. All of it points to a very classic case.

In those classic cases, the percentage of times that we are able to find the child that has been taken is very high, and so we are banking on that. And we're hoping that somewhere down the line, we will get a break that will tell us where this child is. I think the Los Angeles case gives a very clear example of that, and our main point right now is to try to get as much information as we can out to the public, because somewhere, someone is going to see this woman and is going to see this child. That's kind of the old you can run, but you can't hide type of concept. Somewhere they will be seen. If we get the information out to enough people, we feel confident we will get her back.

HEMMER: I hope the percentages certainly are in your favor in this story, and just about everybody watching is feeling the same way. Let's go over some of the facts, and correct my story if I'm wrong here. The woman had put three of her children, including the one- month-old infant inside the minivan, and had gone back to the store to return a shopping cart? Is that the way it was?

VICKERS: That -- not exactly. She didn't go back up to the store. She only traveled about 10 to 12 feet to take the shopping card to shopping cart storage area that's in the parking lot. She was not away from the car, but just seconds, and when she turned around, she saw this woman taking her infant out of the van. She had left the sliding door open on the side of this van due to fact it is very hot here, and she did not want the children in the hot van with the doors closed for any amount of time. She left the door open, moved 10 to 12 feet away, and it took seconds for this woman to swoop down into the location and grab this child and take off.

HEMMER: Listen, as public service, I want you to go ahead and give the description right now of the woman that you're looking for. We have a white female, with a heavy build, a round face, late 20s, 5'8, maybe 5'9, shoulder length brownish blonde hair. What more sergeant?

VICKERS: That's pretty much it on her other than the other thing they added was that she had a very clear complexion. We're also very interested in finding this car. The car is a late-90s, turquoise color four-door sedan. It is a mid-sized car. We're thinking something lines of a Contour, or a Skylark, that type of size. There's a possibility that the passenger front window will be broken. That is not confirmed at all, but we did have a 13-year-old young man that watched this incident take place and stepped in to try to help. He rushed at the suspect's car from the passengers side and tried to get the suspect to stop. When she refused to do so, he struck the window, the passenger's side window of the car, with fist. Whether he broke that window or not, we're not sure, but it is a possibility.

HEMMER: Every clue helps.

Thank you, Sergeant. Kim Vickers in Abilene, Texas, best of luck to you.

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