A 2-day-old baby is safely back home with her mother after allegedly being kidnapped by the mother’s friend, who has since been arrested, according to Houston police.
Authorities responded to a kidnapping call on Saturday, December 31, in the 5000 block of Paige Street. They were told by the child’s mother that she had just returned from the hospital after giving birth when her friend, 19-year-old Kristie Julian, left with the newborn.
A few hours later, police found Julian and the baby at her boyfriend’s home in the 8000 block of Pointe Park Drive.
“Julian was found at her boyfriend’s place with the infant child unharmed,” Shay Awosiyan, a Houston Police Department representative, told The Dallas Express.
He added that EMS was called to the scene to verify that the child was unharmed.
While Julian and her boyfriend allegedly pretended that the little girl was Julian’s, it was reported that Julian had been seen by paramedics in November for an unknown reason and was not pregnant at the time.
Ultimately, Julian was taken into custody and the infant was reunited with her mother.
“She is accused of kidnapping her friend’s 2-day-old infant daughter while her friend had stepped out of the room,” Awosiyan told The Dallas Express.
Julian is currently being held at the Harris County jail on a $20,000 bond.
She is not allowed to have contact with the mother or the infant child if she posts bond, according to KPRC2 Houston.
Crimes like abduction and often-related human trafficking offenses are also prevalent in Dallas, where the city government has thus far failed to get crime under control.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, a staggering 150 kidnappings were committed in Dallas during 2022, in addition to the dozens of other crimes logged related to prostitution and human trafficking.