Post updated at 5:04 p.m. February 7, 2014 —
According to an affidavit, 31-year-old Kristen Smith was charged with kidnapping Kayden Powell from Wisconsin on Thursday, February 6, 2014.
Original post published at 11:23 a.m. February 7, 2014 —
A Wisconsin newborn that was reported missing has reportedly been found, safe, in Iowa.
Kayden Powell was just five days old when his mother, 18-year-old Brianna Marshall, reported him missing. Marshall said she awoke at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday, February 6, 2014 and discovered Kayden was gone from his bassinette.
Kristen Smith, 31, who is reportedly Marshall’s half-sister, was also at the home but reportedly left in the early-morning hours before Kayden was reported missing.
Police said they contacted Smith, who is from Denver, Colorado, by phone and then in person at the Kum and Go along Interstate 80 in West Branch, Iowa. Smith was arrested on an unrelated Texas warrant about an hour after Kayden was reported missing.
FBI agents were reportedly sent to Cedar County, Iowa to meet with Smith. Court records showed she was held in the Cedar County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bond on a fugitive-from-justice charge connected to the Texas warrant.
The day after he was reported missing, police held a news conference announcing Kayden had been found by the West Branch police chief just after 10 a.m. Friday, February 7 in West Branch.
Kayden was reportedly swaddled in blankets inside a tote or duffel bag at a BP gas station near I-80, across the street from the location where Smith was arrested a day earlier.
Police said Kayden is alive and that EMS workers said he appeared to be in excellent health.
Police were working to reunite Kayden with his family.
