Baby Kayden J Powell, who went missing Thursday morning, was found alive at a gas station in eastern Iowa, Friday.
Mike Horihan, police chief in the West Branch, Iowa, found the 6-days-old baby crying in a plastic tote at the gas station near Interstate 80. He was swaddled in layers of blankets and clothes.
Police arrested and questioned the baby's step-aunt, Kristen Smith, Thursday. She confessed to having abducted the baby. Smith is charged with kidnapping by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Wisconsin, reports Iowa City Press-Citizen.
The authorities also found a prosthetic pregnancy belly, baby clothes, a car seat and a pushchair in Smith's car, the Associated Press reports citing police documents.
Despite temperatures dropping to below zero Thursday night into Friday in West Branch, the baby managed to survive, much to the surprise of the police.
"It was awesome, and to be honest with you, it's not what I expected," Horihan told Press-Citizen.
The discovery came a day after federal, Wisconsin and local law enforcement agencies began the search for the baby after his 18-year-old mother, Brianna Marshall, approached the police around 4:30 a.m. Thursday to report that her newborn was missing. Marshall claimed that her child disappeared from his bassinet at the home of the baby's great-uncle, Mark Benett. She was staying with Kayden's father at the baby's uncle's home in Town of Beloit, Wis., about 180 miles from West Branch.
Since then, FBI and Wisconsin Department of Justice joined forces to find the baby. During the police investigation, Marshall told police that Smith visited Benett's home before returning to Colorado. Smith was eventually enquired and arrested around 5:30 a.m. on an ourtstanding Texas warrant, reports AP. If convicted, Smith can face life in prison.
According to mystateline.com, the baby was taken home and the father was escorted to Benett's home by the police.
