Union, Mo. – A newborn abducted last week was found alive Tuesday in excellent condition, and a woman who had recently miscarried was arrested, officials said.
Dr. Peter McCarthy, an emergency-room physician at St. John’s Hospital in Washington, Mo., said 11-day-old Abigale Lynn Woods was reunited with her mother and father.
“The baby was hydrated, nourished and in good condition when she arrived at the hospital,” McCarthy said.
FBI agent Roland Corvington identified the suspect as Shan non Beck, who lives a few miles from the mother.
The case broke when Beck’s sister-in-law, Dorothy Torrez, contacted authorities. “She’s the hero,” Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said.
On Sunday, Beck contacted Torrez to say she had given birth, Corvington said. Beck had been pregnant but apparently miscarried.
Torrez visited Beck on Monday and urged her to take the child to a doctor, the FBI agent said. Beck agreed, and Torrez accompanied her to St. Louis on Tuesday, about 45 miles away.
Torrez noticed makeup on the baby’s forehead, Corvington said. When she rubbed it off, it was covering a birthmark. In publicizing the abduction, police had described Abby’s strawberry-red birthmark.
The child’s mother, Stephenie Ochsenbine, 21, told police Friday that a woman entered her rural home, attacked her with a knife and stole the baby.
