Woman poses as newborn photographer in plot to steal baby, say police
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.
Read more
Mobs lynch eight people over child abduction rumours in Bangladesh
Brexit could lead to rise in parental child abductions, warn experts
Claims of rape and child abduction included in allegations against
