Baby reunited with family

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday 6th September, 2012

By LESLIE OMARO
A FOUR day-old  baby girl has been reunited with her parents after spending a night with her alleged kidnapper, who took her from the Port Moresby General  Hospital labour ward early on Tuesday.
Quick action by the baby’s aunt Georgina Elave and Hohola police officers found her in Gerehu yesterday morning.
Parents Vanua Ravu, from Maopa village in Aroma, Central, and wife Nancy, from Buro village in West Gulf, are now happily reunited with baby Georgina Marina Vanua.
The married couple in their early 20s will have to wait for a doctor’s report on their daughter, who was bleeding from her vagina when she
was found.
The father and his sister Georgina, after whom the baby was named, were grateful to everyone involved in finding baby Georgina.
The arresting officer, who did not want to be named, said the kidnapper was a female from Western Highlands.
The officer said she was arrested by police yesterday at Gerehu and taken to the Hohola police station where she was questioned and detained.
She will be charged, he said.
The baby’s aunt said her sister in-law went to do laundry and had a shower and left the baby asleep alone in the ward.
“When the mother came back she started to look for the baby and that’s when she alerted all of us on our mobile phones,” Georgina said.
“I came straight to the ward and found out that a woman from Goroka, whose son’s wife gave birth the same day as my sister in-law left with the baby.
“I immediately checked the chart of that woman who gave birth and found out her particulars, including where she lived.
“I informed the police at Hohola who immediately went to look for that Goroka woman so she could assist us in locating the kidnapper,” she said.
The arresting officer said yesterday it was rare that a stolen baby was found the next day.
“Some mothers I talked to at the labour ward that day when the baby went missing said that woman was playing with some babies before she left with one of the babies,” he said.
“I spoke to the nurses and guards on duty and left to check on the whereabouts of the suspect with the help of the woman who had given birth”.
The officer said the woman cooperated and led them with the help of a taxi driver to a settlement at the back of Gerehu where they found the kidnapper and the
baby.