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A mother said her baby was kidnapped soon after her baby was found at the bottom of a ravine in the mountains of North Carolina, officials said Friday.
Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin announced that his mother, Krista Noelle Madden, 35, had been
jailed
on a charge of attempted first degree murder.
The child was found in "very good condition" despite the fact that he was thrown into the ravine, Griffin said. The baby was in his car seat when he fell to the ground and came out when the locals found him, he said.
The sheriff described the rapid turn of events in which an investigation into an urgent abduction resulted in a case against a mother who had given birth less than two months earlier.
It's almost by chance that the baby was found: a woman living near the ravine heard her as she was going out to check her mail.
"It's just in my opinion, by the grace of a merciful God, that a woman will check her mailbox (and) she really believes she hears the faint cries of a child," Griffin said. .
The authorities were first alerted by a call to 911, Thursday afternoon, from someone who was sincerely thinking that Madden's baby had been kidnapped. Police in Asheville described a couple wearing ski masks who drove away from Biltmore Park in the city.
Police in Asheville found Madden's mobile phone on a mountain road in Henderson County and informed the sheriff, who dispatched deputies to the area. They found Madden's car, then Madden herself. She told them that she had just escaped an abduction, the sheriff said.
Dogs were brought in to search the area around the car, but they found nothing to indicate that anyone else had been there. A few hours later, they received another 911 call – the baby was found.
Griffin said the woman who had heard the baby's cry had summoned her husband, who had gone down into the ravine and found the little girl.
"She looks so scared … so frightened," said an unidentified woman at a 911 operator, according to a recording of the call released by the media.
The woman, who seemed out of breath, said the baby she had found "was bruised" and that he may have a broken leg and a scratch on his head.
The woman stated that the baby had been found in "herbs and trees" and that the car seat was sitting "away from her".
"There is no one here," said the woman at the seven-minute call. "We live in a remote area and someone parked next to her and threw her like a trash can."
Once Madden was interviewed at the police station, she "provided enough information about her involvement, which gave us a probable cause" to file a complaint against her, the Sheriff said.
The authorities have no reason to believe that the mother or daughter has been kidnapped, he added.
Authorities asked questions at the press conference about the possibility of postpartum depression; Greg Newman, the local district attorney, said he was expecting Madden's lawyers to request that it be assessed.
"We simply follow the facts wherever they are … and then we will discuss with our lawyers what we think is a fair and appropriate solution, and we are not even up to that," said Newman.
Newman identified Madden's lawyers as Jason Blackwell and Sean Devereux. They did not immediately answer the phone calls asking for a comment.
Scott Fowler, the man who recovered the baby from the ravine,
told
WLOS Thursday, he is pleased that the incident occurred near his home and not in a more distant part of the region.
"We heard a baby cry, and my wife said," Scott, a baby is crying over there, "he said," I started to look and I saw him by above the bank. So I went to get him. And all is fine. I think everything will be fine. "
He added, "What kind of human could do that?"
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