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06 June, 2006

Frustrating Search for Girl Continues

Email this Story Jun 4, 10:44 AM (ET)
By JAMES MacPHERSON

MINOT, N.D. (AP) - Police Chief Dan Draovitch had difficulty sleeping on the night before he handed in his badge and retired after 38 years in law enforcement. It was not retirement that was keeping him awake - but a case he was leaving behind.

The case of 3-year-old Reachelle Smith, last seen on May 16, haunted him. It has been one of the most complex and frustrating cases ever to be investigated by his department, he said.

Searches have turned up no trace of the girl known as "Peanut." And leads in the case have dried up.

"I haven't been this frustrated in years - it's driving me crazy," Draovitch said, as he cleared out his office on Wednesday, his last day with the department. "It feels terrible to leave this undone. But at the same time, it will be left in very capable hands."

Draovitch, 62, announced his retirement in January.

Armies of authorities and volunteers have scoured Minot and surrounding areas since May 22, when Reachelle was reported missing by her aunt, Stephanie Smith, 24, the child's legal guardian.

Reachelle was believed to be with Leigh Cowen, a man wanted on a parole violation who had been living with Smith, and who claimed to be Reachelle's father even though police say DNA tests proved he was not.

Police said Cowen told Smith that Reachelle was with his mother and she believed him, until a family van turned up missing, along with Cowen and Reachelle. Authorities later learned that Cowen's mother did not know the girl's whereabouts and issued an Amber Alert.

A day later, Cowen's body was found in a van in the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge, northwest of Minot. Authorities said the evidence showed he died from carbon monoxide poisoning about 12 hours before his body was found, after running a hose from the exhaust inside the vehicle.

There was no sign of Reachelle.

Over the past few weeks, law enforcement officers have sought help from FBI behavioral scientists and even psychics in their search for the child. Stephanie Smith and her sister Samantha, the child's biological mother, held a news conference to issue a tearful plea for her return. Samantha Smith, 22, had given legal custody of Reachelle to her sister at birth, Draovitch said.

A river channel near the child's home drew much interest from authorities early in the search. Divers dragged the water, while volunteers and bloodhounds searched the banks. The channel later was pumped dry.

"We've floated it, drained it, dove it, dogged it and walked it," said Capt. Al Hanson, the lead investigator in the case. "Nothing."

Most of the ground in the city has been searched "six, seven or eight times," he said.

Draovitch and Hanson said some overtime has been paid to officers but most of them have volunteered to search for Reachelle while off-duty.

"Most days, I have to kick the guys out and make them go home," Hanson said. One officer was covered with more than 80 ticks after one day of searching, he said.

Cowen's mother, Ellen Loomis, of Derby, Kan., said her son turned 22 years old on May 16, the day Reachelle was last seen.

Loomis, who had moved from Minot shortly before the child disappeared, said she had taken care of Reachelle only once. She said she learned she was not the Reachelle's grandmother when police began investigating the child's disappearance. Her son and "everyone else led me to believe I was her grandmother until she went missing," she said.

Authorities have said they questioned Loomis and are satisfied that she has no idea of Reachelle's whereabouts. She said she is as baffled they are.

"I don't know the story," she said. "I wish I knew - it would be a lot easier on me. I just want her found. That's all I want."

Cowen's ashes were sent to his mother last week, police said.

Cowen was on probation for theft of property in Ward County and was being supervised in Fargo when he failed to report in as required. A warrant was issued in April for his arrest on charges of violating his probation and he was facing up to 18 months in prison for the parole violation, Hanson said.

Before Reachelle disappeared, Cowen had taken dozens of snapshots of the child to bring with him to prison, Draovitch said. DNA tests earlier had proved he was not the father, the chief said.

Authorities do not know why he continued to claim the girl was his daughter.

"He said he was the father, and his mother was convinced he was the father," Draovitch said. "He called her his child and he claimed she was his child, but I'm not sure he was ever totally convinced that he was the father."

Draovitch said Cowen did not leave any clues about why he killed himself, or any clues to Reachelle. Still, police consider him the only suspect in the girl's disappearance.

"Everything we've run down leads back to him," Hanson said.

Two volunteers from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were in Minot last week to help in the investigation. Missing-child experts Pat Farrell, a retired police chief from Rochester, Minn., and Lee Manning, a retired Massachusetts State Police officer, said they believed authorities in North Dakota have been doing everything possible to find the child.

"They are not leaving any stone unturned," Manning said.

Draovitch said many of the 62 officers in the department are "physically and emotionally drained" from the case, but no one has given up.

"People have come together like you would not believe," he said. Missing Baby Found, Alleged Abductor Held

Email this Story Jun 6, 12:43 AM (ET)
By BETSY BLANEY

(AP) This composite sketch provided by the Lubbock Police Dept. shows the likeness of a woman accused of...
Full Image

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - A missing 5-day-old baby was found Monday evening, and police arrested a woman suspected of abducting the child more than a day earlier after she had posed as a nurse in medical scrubs.

Priscilla Nicole Maldonado was taken to University Medical Center. Hospital spokesman Greg Bruce said the baby was fine.

Police said the infant was found alone in a car seat beneath a carport in 104-degree weather. It was not clear how long she had been outside before authorities arrived.

"The doctors wanted to check her and I didn't want to let go," said Erica Ysasaga, the infant's mother. "I didn't want to stop hugging and kissing her."

The baby was to remain at the hospital overnight for observation.

Lt. Roy Bassett said police rescued the child after a caller suggested they contact a man in Lubbock. Police called the man and asked if his wife had recently had a baby. The man said she had, but his answers had "obvious flaws," Bassett said.

Stephanie Lynn Anderson Jones, 33, was being held on kidnapping charges. Detectives were questioning her and her husband.

Jones closely matched the description the baby's family had provided of the woman who had visited them several times in the hospital last week and disappeared with their daughter Sunday after mother and child had gone home, Bassett said.

Police Chief Claude Jones said she led officers to the baby.

(AP) This photo provided by the Lubbock Police Dept. shows a ring that the suspect left with Erica...
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Earlier Monday, police had studied hospital surveillance video and went door to door in a race to find the newborn and the woman who stole her.

The woman had apparently blended in with hospital staff in the days before the child's disappearance and befriended the baby's mother.

Nurses on duty at the time the woman visited the newborn and her family remembered seeing her on repeated visits to the hospital, police said. But no one asked why she was not wearing the correct color of scrubs or why she had no identification badge, officials said.

Nurses from doctors' offices and other medical facilities often wear scrubs and sometimes visit newborns and their families, Bassett said.

"From what I understand, they don't check and identify every possible visitor who comes to the hospital," he said. "She didn't make any attempt to take the baby from the hospital and didn't spark any suspicions."

(AP) This composite sketch provided by the Lubbock Police Dept. shows the likeness of a woman accused of...
Full Image

The abduction followed by seven months the death of Ysasaga's and Jesse Maldonado's 2-month-old daughter, who choked to death while being burped in October. Bassett said police ruled out foul play in the baby's death.

In the hospital, the kidnapper led the mother to believe she was a nurse by dressing like one, asking questions about the baby and retrieving towels, the family said. When Ysasaga was released, the woman asked for her address, saying she had a swing and some clothes for the baby.

"She was concerned all the time about my baby, so I thought she was a nurse," Ysasaga told KAMC-TV.

At the time of her abduction, the baby girl had jaundice, a common complication in newborns that causes a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes because of a buildup of pigment in the blood.

On Sunday, the woman visited the family's home and told the mother she wanted to put the newborn in a baby pageant. "I said, 'No, my baby is sick. She can't be out in public,'" Ysasaga said. "She said they would pay me $100 and my baby would win stuff."

The woman then said she had relatives on the next block and wanted to show them the baby, according to Ysasaga. Ysasaga said she wanted to go with her, but the woman disappeared with the newborn while Ysasaga was momentarily distracted by her young son.

"My son ran ahead of me so I tried to reach over and grab him and when I did that, I turned around. Just like that, my baby was gone," she said.

To gain Ysasaga's confidence, the woman gave Ysasaga a driver's license number and Social Security number, according to police. But neither number matched the name the woman had given the mother.

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