Woman poses as newborn photographer in plot to steal baby, say police
Mother of newborn reports feeling drowsy after being given cupcake
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A woman posed as a baby photographer and drugged a mother in order to try and steal her child, police have alleged.
Officers in Pierce County, south of Seattle, said they launched an investigation two weeks ago after a woman dialled 911 to report she was feeling drowsy.
Officers said she reported being sick, and feared she had been drugged.
Having been treated at hospital, she told police a woman had come to her home, saying she was there to take photographs of her baby.
The two had met online through a Facebook group for mothers of newborns. The suspect offered to provide free photographs of the newborns in order to establish her reputation and portfolio, K5 News reported.
The woman told officers that suspect visited her home on three different dates. On the third visit, she brought her teenage daughter. Police say the pair brought with them a cupcake which they gave to the woman to eat. Almost immediately she started to feel sleepy and asked the woman and teenager to leave, said police.
“When the whole thing unravelled her house keys were missing, she remembers her wiping prints down in the kitchen,” said officer Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
“We were able to find through search warrants and communication through social media and texts a plot we put together that obviously shows she was attempting to find an infant to take out of state and raise as her own.”
Mr Troyer said the investigation had found additional victims that let the suspect come take photos of their infants but that so far, there were no other cases of someone being drugged.
Officers released an alert warning the public about a woman calling herself Juliette Parker, Juliette Noel or Juliette Gains, “who posed as a photographer”.
Officers said the suspect had many aliases and did not release her official name. They also changed the locks on the house of the woman who was drugged.
Officer arrested a 38-year-old woman at her home in the town of Graham. Her daughter was also arrested because police said she was the one who gave the victim the cupcake.
The suspect has multiple aliases, police said, and two years ago she appears to have been linked to efforts to make. bomb. “It’s turning out to be a very colourful background on our suspect,“ said Mr Troyer.
The woman was placed in jail on charges of assault and attempted kidnapping. Her daughter was booked into juvenile detention centre. Both are due to appear in court this week.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments