US: Hospital-snatch baby found safe

A newborn baby kidnapped from a Texas hospital by a woman posing as a medical worker was found safe early today in a New Mexico hospital, police said.

Four-day-old Mychael Darthard-Dawodu was in good condition in the city of Clovis, about 100 miles northwest of Lubbock, and transportation was being arranged to return the baby to Texas, said Lubbock police Lt Scott Hudgens.

The 5lbs baby was taken early yesterday by a woman who was seen on a surveillance video walking out of Covenant Lakeside Hospital with the baby hidden in her bag. The disappearance sparked a manhunt and public alerts in Texas and New Mexico, resulting in tips from all around the country.

The FBI was interviewing a suspect, said Covenant Health System Vice President Gwen Stafford, adding that the baby’s parents were notified of the recovery.

Hospital surveillance footage showed a woman wearing blue and flower-print hospital scrubs and a grey, puffy jacket with a hood walking out of the hospital around 1:20 a.m. She fled in a red pickup truck, possibly with a male accomplice, police said.

Lubbock police had contacted authorities in Clovis after receiving a tip that a person matching the woman’s description was seen in that city.

The abductor had gone into Mychael’s mother’s room several times before the baby was taken, telling her the baby needed tests, Stafford said.

Stafford said she did not know why the kidnapper took the baby to the Clovis hospital.

The child was suffering from jaundice, a common complication in newborns in which a build-up of pigment in the blood causes a yellowing of the skin.