Police find kidnapped 3-month-old baby alive under 20-cm layer of snow - search for perpetrator in progress
A kidnapping drama that transpired yesterday in the eastern city of Varkaus had a happy ending.
The three-month-old baby boy who was snatched from his pram just before 11 a.m. was later found alive under a 20-centimetre layer of snow. According to a doctor, the boy has escaped the life-threatening situation unharmed and is on his way to full recovery.
One or more individuals took the child from the pram where he was sleeping outside a family friend’s home.
According to the police the boy’s mother, who was inside visiting the friend, kept checking on the baby roughly every five minutes.
Before his disappearance the boy had been in his pram for about 20 minutes.
The Northern Savo Police used considerable manpower in the search for the lost child.
A Defence Forces helicopter from the nearby Utti garrison area was also called in to help in the effort.
Finland’s frontier stations were also alerted of the incident to prevent the baby from being smuggled out of the country.
According to Det. Inspector Timo Nyyssönen from the Varkaus Police, the baby was found at around 14:10 by police officers who were performing a fingertip search in the vicinity of the area of his disappearance.
The officers heard crying from under the snow and dug the child out. Two ambulances were immediately alerted to the scene.
The baby had been missing for just over three hours.
The search for the kidnapper or kidnappers was discontinued at around 20:30 to be continued today, Tuesday.
Experts from the National Bureau of Investigation will accompany the local police in today’s search for the perpetrators.
So far the police have no knowledge of the identity of the person or persons behind the kidnapping.
“The incident is quite unique for the police as well”, Nyyssönen said on Monday.
From the area where the baby was found, some footprints were identified.
So far the police have not revealed any details with regard to the footprints.
The kidnapping took place in the peaceful residential area of Kuoppakangas. The baby boy’s 25-year-old mother had arrived from the nearby suburb where she lived, in order to visit a family friend.
The baby’s disappearance came as a huge shock to the host, the baby’s mother, and the baby’s father who was alerted to the scene immediately.
At around 13:00 the couple was still seen searching around the area for their offspring.
Pensioner Aila Soininen, who lives nearby, was shocked to hear about the kidnapping.
“I started wondering if perhaps some older children had snatched the baby. Kids are known to have committed such foolish deeds sometimes without thinking of the consequences.”
What added to Soininen’s upset was the fact that the baby was only three months old. “A child that young still requires mother’s milk constantly.”
The Varkaus Police confirm that should it turn out that the baby was kidnapped by an adult that would indeed be a quite unique case in Finnish criminal history.
The NBI officials, too, cannot remember off hand of a case where an adult would have abducted a baby.
The most common explanation for a disappearance of an infant from a pram is another child, who just wants to play and who does not understand the gravity of the situation.
Often such babies are found quite quickly and not too far from where they disappeared.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 9.3.2010 - TODAY |
 Police find kidnapped 3-month-old baby alive under 20-cm layer of snow - search for perpetrator in progress |
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