Baby abducted from maternity ward near Paris: Belgium launches national search notice

A national search notice was issued Tuesday evening in Belgium to try to find Santiago, a very premature newborn baby whose parents are suspected of having abducted him Monday evening from a maternity hospital near Paris before crossing from France to Belgium.

The notice, published in Belgium on the federal police website at the request of the Mons (south) public prosecutor's office and relayed by the child protection association Child Focus, is accompanied by photos of the parents, aged around twenty.

There is also a photo of the car they allegedly used, “a dark blue Audi A4 registered in France with the number plate GR-956-ZV,” the Belgian police added.

The newborn was wearing “at the time of his disappearance (…) a brown T-shirt (size six months) and white thick velvet pajamas. He needs urgent medical care,” the wanted notice states.

In France, a kidnapping alert was in effect all day – launched around 8:00 a.m. and lifted shortly before 7:00 p.m. This procedure aims to send out precise information to the population on a massive scale, across the entire national territory, in order to find a child as quickly as possible.

“By decision of the Bobigny prosecutor's office, the kidnapping alert has been ended. The child has not been found. The search is continuing,” the French Ministry of Justice said late in the afternoon on its X account.

On Monday evening, Santiago, aged 17 days, was allegedly abducted by his parents aged 23 and 25 from a hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois, about twenty kilometres north-east of Paris.

According to the Bobigny public prosecutor, Eric Mathais, “the important work immediately carried out by the investigators of the judicial police” made it possible “to think that the couple could have reached Belgium with the baby during the night” from Monday to Tuesday. This triggered a “European investigation decision”, according to the prosecutor's press release published in the middle of the afternoon.

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The baby, very premature, requires “constant medical care”, warned the Ministry of Justice in its kidnapping alert. Any break in this care is likely to compromise his vital prognosis. The baby's life expectancy without medical care has been estimated at around twelve hours, according to a police source.

The kidnapping took place between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., the hospital being alerted by the disconnection of the cardiac sensors.

“The suspects (in the kidnapping) are his parents, a 23-year-old man, dressed in dark jeans, a white T-shirt, a light blue denim jacket and a black overcoat, and a 25-year-old woman, dressed in a white sweater, a light blue sleeveless jacket and a green skirt,” according to the report released in France.

According to the Bobigny prosecutor, they are both “already known to the police and the courts,” without providing further details.

In this investigation, opened for kidnapping by an organized gang of a minor under the age of fifteen and entrusted to the judicial police, “five people, aged 16 to 29, who were not the parents of the infant,” were arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday in 10:15 a.m., according to the Bobigny prosecutor.

According to a source close to the case, they are part of the parents' “entourage”.

– Black shopping bag –

According to a police source at AFP, the police were alerted shortly after midnight by the staff of the neonatology department of the disappearance of the very premature baby, requiring constant medical care.

Bobigny prosecutor Eric Mathais, April 5, 2022 © AFP – Thomas SAMSON

“The use of video surveillance cameras confirmed that the parents had left with a bag black shopping bag type, possibly using a light-coloured vehicle, with three other individuals on board,” Eric Mathais explained.

“The police tried in vain to contact the mother on her phone, went to the addresses declared by the parents and also tried to contact them through family members,” the Bobigny prosecutor's office indicated.

Adopted in France in February 2006, the “kidnapping alert” system has been triggered in France on around thirty occasions to date. Since its creation, this system has enabled 33 children to be found alive, according to the official website.

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