A 34-year-old Barnhart woman allegedly lied about an Arnold woman abducting her 3-month-old daughter. Police have requested the mother of the child be charged by the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office with filing a false police report, Arnold Police reported.
At about 8:30 a.m. March 9, the mother reported her daughter was missing. She told police she had to go to the hospital to get stitches after being assaulted in Branson and left her daughter with her friend, who lives in a home on Starling Airport Road, on the night of March 8. The mother said she was supposed to get a ride home from the hospital from her friend, who never came to pick her up, the report said.
The mother said she got a ride from someone else to the Arnold home, but when she arrived, no one was there. She said she slept outside the home and called police in the morning, according to the report.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued an endangered person advisory for the baby on March 9 with a description of the 27-year-old Arnold woman who was caring for the infant, as well as a description of the caregiver’s car. That advisory was canceled about 10 minutes later, the report said.
After talking to the mother, Arnold Police contacted the caregiver’s mother, who told police the child had been left with her daughter at the Arnold home on Feb. 16, and her daughter had been caring for the infant ever since. Arnold Police said neighbors also said the baby had been at the home for about a month, and investigators were shown photos that corroborated that timeline, according to the report.
Officers located the caregiver and child at a home in the 800 block of Sun Valley South in Arnold, which is about a mile away from Starling Airport Road. The officers determined the child was not in danger of being harmed under the woman’s care, the report said.
The Department of Family Services was contacted, and the baby was turned over to one of the mother’s relatives, Arnold Police Cpl. Brett Ackermann said.