A mother’s claim that her 7-week-old baby was kidnapped quickly unraveled after her infant was found at the bottom of a 75-foot…
A mother’s claim that her 7-week-old baby was kidnapped quickly unraveled after her infant was found at the bottom of a 75-foot ravine in the North Carolina mountains, law enforcement officials said Friday.
Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin announced that the child’s mother, Krista Noelle Madden, 35, has been jailed on a count of attempted first-degree murder.
The child was found in ‘‘very good condition’’ despite being thrown down the ravine, Griffin said. The baby was in her car seat when it hit the ground, and somehow rolled out of it by the time local residents found her, he said.
The sheriff described a fast-moving turn of events in which an urgent kidnapping investigation turned into a case against a mother who’d given birth less than two months before.
It was almost by chance that the baby was found: A woman living near the ravine happened to hear her as she went outside to check her mail.
‘‘It was simply in my opinion by the grace of a merciful God that we had a female that goes to check her mailbox, (and) she really believes that she hears the faint cries of an infant,’’ Griffin said.
Authorities were first alerted by a 911 call late Thursday afternoon from someone who genuinely believed that Madden’s baby had been kidnapped.
