Indiana women who helped find missing Ohio infant get standing ovation
Corrections & Clarifications: This article was updated to correct Shyann Belmar's name.
Two Indianapolis women were recognized by the city for their heroic efforts leading a suspected kidnapper into custody and racing against the clock to find a missing 5-month-old twin abducted from Columbus, Ohio.
On Monday night, the Indianapolis City-County Council commended cousins Shyann Belmar and Mecka Curry for helping police arrest kidnapping suspect Nalah T. Jackson and scouring the city to find infant Kason Thomas on the brink of an approaching, dangerous winter storm.
Top Indianapolis police officials said the cousins’ actions emulated community policing, and led the meeting attendees in a standing ovation for them.
“This is what that looks like,” said Deputy Chief Kendale Adams of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. “I’m proud of these two women. Were it not for their actions, I’m not sure that we would’ve saved that baby.”
Adams then quipped the department is hiring.
The women’s sleuthing began after Belmar realized while scrolling through Facebook that a woman she saw in mugshots attached to an AMBER Alert out of Ohio looked eerily similar to the person she bought toys from and gave a ride to the day before. The 27-year-old became surer of herself when she compared the photos with pictures she captured on her phone of the women, who called herself “Mae.”
Related:A chance encounter and mother's intuition: How 2 Indy women helped find missing Ohio twin
She, along with Curry, embarked on a plan to lure "Mae” to various stores around Indianapolis and call police to arrest her so they wouldn’t be traced as the people who called her in.
After a couple unsuccessful attempts, the cousins got Indianapolis police to conduct a traffic stop on I-65 with “Mae” in the back seat. On Dec. 22, at about 2 p.m., officers arrested Jackson. The 24-year-old is being held in Marion County Jail on a battery by bodily waste charge she acquired while being processed in connection with the kidnapping.
The women knew the case wasn’t over, as infant and vehicle remained missing. Curry told IndyStar they found a bus route, or key evidence as she called it, in the back seat where “Mae” had been sitting. The cousins traced the route looking for a Honda matching the one described in the AMBER Alert, but with no luck.
As dinner time rolled around and a winter storm approaching that threatened dangerously cold temperatures, the women were running into dead ends when they saw a Honda in the parking lot of a downtown Papa Johns. Curry said she ran to the car and saw baby legs in the back seat.
Kason Thomas was safely recovered from the vehicle at shortly after 6:30 p.m. Dec. 22.
Contact Sarah Nelson at 317-503-7514 or sarah.nelson@indystar.com
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy cousins recognized by city for finding 5-month-old Ohio twin
