A Broadview woman who spent Christmas with a 16-month-old girl she thought was her granddaughter pointed authorities to West Virginia on Thursday, where they found Jasmine Anderson unharmed in a home rented by the woman accused of abducting her.
Just like Jasmine’s real mother, the Broadview woman was allegedly duped by Sheila A. Matthews, 33, who was charged Thursday with kidnapping, police and federal authorities said.
They charged that Matthews kidnapped Jasmine from the Greyhound bus station on Christmas Eve to cover a lie to her boyfriend that she had delivered his child while he was in prison. The Broadview woman who led authorities to West Virginia is the mother of the recently released convict, police and federal officials said.
“When [Matthews] went to the Greyhound station that night, she was looking to abduct a baby,” said Phil Cline, the Chicago police chief of detectives. “It’s definitely premeditated that she wanted to kidnap a baby. But that she wanted Jasmine Anderson is not the case. That just happened to be circumstance.”
More Top Picks Best 75 Inch Tvs
Jasmine, who was in good condition when the police and FBI found her in tiny Williamson, W.Va., Thursday afternoon, was hospitalized only as precaution, authorities said. Her mother, Marcella Anderson, cried tears of joy as the news capped a three-day, nationwide hunt. It was not clear late Thursday when or where the family would be reunited.
The kidnapping began to unravel Thursday morning when the would-be grandmother brought Broadview police Jasmine’s pink winter coat and 10 Christmas photos after seeing press reports about the kidnapping, police said. The pictures featured her son, a woman she described as her son’s girlfriend and Jasmine, police said.
Not long after the three left at 5 p.m. Wednesday to drive to West Virginia, the woman told police, she saw news reports of the abduction and recognized the child
“Once her son left, she said, `It all adds up,'” said Detective Kevin Eugling of the Broadview Police Department. He also said that the would-be grandmother was “very helpful, absolutely amazing,” and that she was in a state of “complete shock and disbelief.”
The boyfriend had complained that he wanted to meet the child, and Matthews said the baby was in Chicago with her mother, authorities said.
The Broadview woman had even driven Matthews to the Greyhound station on Christmas Eve when the child was abducted, authorities said. Matthews had told the woman she was picking up her baby from her mother, police and federal sources said.
The Broadview woman told police she waited outside the station for about 20 minutes and then saw Matthews run out of a back door carrying the child. Matthews told the woman she was being chased by an ex-husband, authorities said.
Matthews and her boyfriend drove the roughly 530 miles to Williamson overnight Wednesday, police said.
Police smash front door
Matthews has lived in Chicago, Seattle and other cities during the last several years and rented an eight-room wood frame house in Williamson for about the last five months, police and the home’s landlord said.
FBI agents, Williamson police and the West Virginia State Police smashed in the home’s front door around 4 p.m. Chicago time Thursday, said Roby Pope, the Williamson police chief.
He said Matthews, who ran a hair salon out of the house called Sheila’s Sassy Scissors, was inside with her boyfriend. Jasmine was “in excellent condition” on a couch, Pope said.
“Most kidnappings don’t end up this way. It’s like a belated Christmas present,” Pope said, echoing FBI officials and police in Chicago who worked around the clock on the case for three days.
Pope said Matthews denied snatching the child, telling police that her sister had taken the baby and that she was trying to figure out how to get the child back to its mother without causing harm to her sister.
Eugene Thorn, Matthews’ landlord in Williamson, said he was at the home just after the raid. To him, it looked like Matthews had prepared for motherhood.
“She had a lot of baby clothes with her in there–new stuff,” Thorn said.
The boyfriend also believed the child was his own, Pope said, although the man was not 100 percent certain.
“He had just been led to believe by her that this was his child, but he had his doubts,” said Pope, who participated in the questioning of the two Thursday night. “He said the child didn’t fit the age bracket. The child should have been older, about 2 or 2 1/2.”
Federal and state authorities released the boyfriend Thursday night without charging him. They were transporting Matthews to a federal lockup in Charleston, W.Va., late Thursday, authorities said. She was charged in Chicago with the federal kidnapping violation.
After her baby was found safe, a tearful Marcella Anderson said, “I plan to go home as soon as possible and have our own Christmas.” Anderson of Milwaukee has maintained an almost constant vigil at Harrison Area detective headquarters since the abduction.
The FBI worked into the night Thursday to piece together Matthews’ moves in Chicago during the last seven days, said Jeffrey H. Cramer, the federal prosecutor on the case. That investigation included the possibility that she may have attempted an abduction before Christmas Eve, authorities said.
Authorities were trying to piece together her background. They said she has used several names and given different variations of her Social Security number.
Fingerprint data awaited
Because of that, Cramer said authorities were waiting for a fingerprint check from the FBI to be processed to get more definitive information on her background.
Michael Choe, the manager of the Peking Restaurant in South Williamson, Ky., just across the West Virginia border, said Matthews worked as a cashier in his restaurant for just two days in October before he fired her.
She was polite, Choe said, but “she wasn’t doing everything correctly. The way she was approaching things–she thinks like she owns the whole place.”
More Top Picks Calm Down Corner Ideas For Home On A Budget
Matthews told Choe she had moved to the area to care for a grandmother. Thorn, Matthews’ landlord, also said the kidnapping suspect lived with a grandmother.
Anderson, Jasmine’s mother, made a tentative identification of Matthews on Thursday when police and the FBI showed her the Christmas picture brought in by the Broadview mother of Matthews’ boyfriend, authorities said.
Police said Anderson met Matthews, who called herself “Christine” or “Christina” at the Greyhound station after 9 p.m. Monday.
Anderson had arrived at Chicago’s Midway Airport about an hour earlier, after visiting a brother and a sister in St. Louis for the holidays. She herded her restless children–Jasmine and an older daughter, 3-year-old Alesia–into a cab bound for the Greyhound bus station at 630 W. Harrison St.
The family hoped to save several hundred dollars by flying in and out of Chicago instead of home to Milwaukee. Once at the bus station, Alesia began to struggle with her mother. Anderson was juggling the two children and luggage.
At that point, Matthews allegedly introduced herself with the bogus name, saying she was at the station to pick up her own daughter, police said. She befriended the struggling mother and won her trust with an offer of assistance, police said.
The woman allegedly said she was heading to Milwaukee and would give the family a ride once her own daughter’s bus pulled into the station. The woman said Anderson could give her a little bit of gas money for the trip and that the kids could sleep in her van.
The woman then sent Anderson into a terminal line to get a refund on her Greyhound tickets, offering to hold Jasmine. As soon as Anderson passed over her 16-month-old daughter, the child and her kidnapper disappeared, police said.
Asked Thursday night how she felt about the arrest and her daughter being safe, Anderson said, “Relieved, knowing my baby’s back and that [the suspect is] going to be behind bars. And hopefully, she’s learned a very valuable lesson. I know I have.”
Matthews was expected to make an initial appearance before a federal judge Friday.