Amber Alert issued in Ottawa for missing 11-month-old girl
Amber Alert #AmberAlert
Video: Ottawa woman charged with abducting baby on Mother’s Day (cbc.ca)
Ottawa woman charged with abducting baby on Mother’s Day
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An 11-month-old baby was found safe and was being treated in hospital Friday morning after she was abducted from her mother overnight in Ottawa’s west end.
Police found the girl at about 7:30 a.m. Friday, a little over four hours after they issued a province-wide Amber Alert for the girl who has a medical condition and must be fed through a tube in her nose.
The rescue came after dozens of police officers mustered Friday morning for a search beside Larga Baffin, a full-service boarding home for residents of the Baffin region of Nunavut where the mother and daughter were staying. The baby girl was found in an apartment nearby after an officer spotted a woman walking on a nearby street and recognized her as the same person who had been seen in security camera video.
“I’m extremely proud of my fellow officers today,” said Const. Martin Dompierre of Ottawa police. “One of the officers in the Emergency Services Unit was able to actually see the suspect we were looking for last night. That person was located early this morning. The officer engaged that person and started asking questions and that interview led to the finding of the baby.
“That suspect has been arrested and is now being interrogated,” Dompierre said.
The baby was last seen with the mother at around 11:15 p.m. Thursday, which was when Ottawa police were called. Police issued the Amber Alert at 3:22 a.m., describing the girl who was wearing a navy blue Montreal Canadian “onesie” when last seen. They also released a black and white image of a hoodie-wearing woman whom police first described as a witness, but was later arrested as the suspect.
The fact that the baby was ill added to the sense of urgency, Dompierre said.
“It definitely changes the investigation. It elevates the risk and we put all resources into finding that baby. I’m very happy today.”
Dompierre could not say if there had been any previous relationship between the mother and the alleged abductor.
More than 50 officers had been called out for the search, staging at La Maison de la Francophone, a French-language community hub next door to Larga Baffin. A police dog and its handler was also at the scene.
Residents at Larga Baffin who were gathered outside for a takeout breakfast Friday morning said the mother was from Cape Dorset. Some said they’d seen the alleged abductor with the baby and the mother the night before.
“We just saw her holding on to the baby,” said one woman, who gave her name only as Apa.
“We thought she was a social worker. They were even walking together.”
The last they saw her she was walking down to Richmond toward the OC Transpo stop, Apa said.
No one in the group had ever seen the woman before.
“No one even knows where she lived,” Apa said.
The abduction is being investigated by the Ottawa police Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit. Anyone with information that might help investigators is asked to call 613-236-1222, ext. 5944.
Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 or at crimestoppers.ca.
