Three months after a 3-week-old California girl was found dead in a dumpster, a woman has been accused of the infant's murder as part of a macabre plot to kill mothers, kidnap their children and pass them off as her own, the Associated Press reported.
Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian, 47, and her alleged accomplice Anthony McCall, 29, were arrested Wednesday on charges of suspicion of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and kidnapping in a case involving two babies D'Milian plotted to use for tricking her boyfriend into thinking they were hers, police said.
D'Milian and her accomplice are accused of targeting 3-week-old Eliza Delacruz and her mother, of Long Beach, after spotting the pair riding a public bus on Jan. 3. When the mother got off the bus, D'Milian caught up with her and began asking her about her daughter.
"Less than two hours later, at approximately 5:50 p.m., McCall forced his way into the home, shot three adults and kidnapped baby Eliza," Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna told the Long Beach Press Telegram.
Little Eliza was found dead the next day in a trash bin located in Imperial Beach, which lies near the Mexican border. Police have not said how the infant died, the AP reported.
Since then, authorities have worked tirelessly to apprehend the suspects but were stalled because of how long it took for Eliza's mother, father and uncle to recover from the shootings. Investigators caught a break after receiving information of a similar incident involving the attempted kidnapping of a 4-month-old boy in nearby El Segundo.
Police in that city were called to a hotel on Feb. 6 and found a woman severely beaten with a baseball bat inside one of the rooms, the AP reported. McCall allegedly beat her with the intent of taking her 4-month-old son, who was in the room during the time of the assault, police said.
Luna said the El Segundo victim was targeted because D'Milian knew her and knew she recently had a child.
The malicious scheme - down to the attempted murders and kidnappings - was all allegedly done to convince the suspect's married boyfriend the babies were hers. Investigators believe D'Milian previously told her boyfriend, who lives somewhere in California, she was pregnant with twins and he was the father.
"She told him that she gave birth to his children in December of 2014 while out of the country," Luna told the Press Telegram. "Based on our investigation, D'Milian never gave birth to any children last year and, in order to continue with this deception, she needed to produce two children who matched the ages of her fabricated twins."
D'Milian's 30-year-old daughter, Charisse Shelton, and a 44-year-old man named Todd Boudreaux were also arrested for their alleged attempts to cover up D'Milian's crimes. All four are expected to be arraigned Friday.
