Abducted baby found unharmed in Gasparillo

Barking dogs led the occupant of the house, Arlene Francis, 36, to discover Timothy, who had been snatched from Tina at her Guapo Village home on Tuesday morning. The abductors had gone to Tina asking for her husband, Nigel Cumberbatch. Angry that he was not at home, they snatched Timothy.

A police report stated that the baby was grabbed on Tuesday by two men dressed in Muslim garb at about 7 am. Police said when Tina told the men she was unaware of her husband's whereabouts, one of the men grabbed Timothy and left with him in a white car. At 5.30 am yesterday, barking dogs led Francis to the concrete steps leading from Charles Street to her house. The child was sitting quietly on the third step a couple feet from the road which leads to a concrete tunnel.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Francis, a contract worker at PCS Nitrogen, said her first thoughts were that someone had simply put the baby on the steps to run an errand. The baby was clad in a green jersey-type outfit.

However, with no sign of anyone up to 8.40 am, Francis telephoned the Gasparillo Police Station. A party of police officers headed by Insp Terry Khan which included PC Singh and WPC Seerattan, responded. The police party brought the baby to the Gasparillo Police Station.

Immediately, mom Tina was contacted and brought to the Gasparillo Police Station by Cpl Garraway of the Point Fortin CID.

When Tina walked into the station's charge room yesterday, shortly before 11 am, she burst into tears. Hugging her baby tightly, the mother murmured words of prayer to God. "I am overjoyed that I got my baby back because I was really feeling empty without him," a smiling Tina said as she left the station yesterday.

Francis also saw the reunited mother and baby at the station yesterday. She told Newsday, "When I was told by the police that the boy was most likely the one abducted, I was shocked. I did not know that a baby had been abducted. I did not listen to the news the night before, that is why I did not know anything."

Detectives of the Point Fortin CID, Siparia CID and the Anti-Kidnapping Squad are investigating.