TEARFUL PLEA
Dos Santos, looking uncomfortable in the glare of television lights, continued a tearful plea to the kidnapper.
"Please return my baby," she said. "I suffer very much for my baby. It is getting dark again and my baby is still not here. Leave my baby with the firemen. Leave it at any firehouse."
Dos Santos described her terror when she first saw the knife in the kidnapper's car and realized what was happening.
"I thought when I saw the knife, this is a kidnapping. She is after my baby," she said.
Investigative supervisors from a specially trained Child Abduction Response Team continue to work at an off-site location, trying to put together what is known and farm out assignments to field investigators, authorities said.
Investigators are still trying to assess significance of the tape recording they believe holds the kidnapper's voice.
In an unusual turn of events, investigators were able to determine the kidnapper used the phone of one of the abducted women to make a telephone call. She pretended to call her mother, Carr said, but the call was actually made to an area business.
While the kidnapper pretended to have a conversation, an answering machine at the business recorded her voice.
Police did not release the name of the business and are still trying to determine if the number was a random dialing or a significant fact in the case, Carr said. The kidnapper called the number twice, but police cannot rule out the second call was through use of a redial button, he said.
Meanwhile, police are continuing to press canvasses in the Pine Minor neighborhood, where the kidnapper had originally asked to go, he said.
Carr said he does not believe there is any connection between the victimized women and the kidnapper.
One theory is the kidnapper could be a woman who was recently pregnant and may have lost her baby, police said.
"I think she was a victim of opportunity," Carr said of Dos Santos.
He said there was no indication either woman put up a fight with the abductor.
Speaking of the abducted child's mother, Carr said: "I think she was just scared to death."
Janice Duarte, 22, along with her 8-month-old, also had been abducted, but she managed to escape with her child.
She is helping by handing out Amber Alert fliers, she said.
She said she will now be less trusting of others.
"I will be very apprehensive," she said through an interpreter.
HELP FROM OTHERS
In addition to the task force investigators, police are also being aided by personnel from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and church groups, Carr said
"Two women, who speak Portuguese, are going to be distributing fliers in both Tampa and Miami through their church groups," Carr said. "This is the kind of help that can make a difference."
He expressed hope publicity might generate the call investigators need to put together the case.
"We believe we have someone who was looking for a young baby and found a young baby," he said. "We hope someone will call and say they know someone who suddenly has a new baby."
That scenario also bodes well for the safety of the child.
"In virtually all cases with very young babies the child is found alive and reunited with his parents," said Bryant Harper, founder of CodeAmber.org, a group helping Fort Myers police.
With a baby this young, the child also will need proper care, doctors said.
"With a (month-old) baby, (there) is very little they are capable of doing," said Dr. Yanet Rios, a pediatrician at the Pediatric Hospital of the Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida. "In terms of milestones, they may be able to raise their head slightly, but they cannot recognize faces."
The infant also would require frequent feeding with either formula or breast milk and have a diaper change at least four to six times a day, she said.
In addition, infants have trouble controlling their body temperatures and risk dehydration if not properly cared for, Rios said. This baby would not have received his immunization shots, she said, and also would be prone to infection.
Although police were tight-lipped about the possible whereabouts of their suspect, Carr said Miami was mentioned as a destination because of the kidnapper's southbound direction of travel.
"It was speculation based on what we knew at the time," he said.
MORE DETAIL
The events preceding the kidnapping also were explained in greater detail.
Police now believe the women were targets of opportunity, spotted by a kidnapper prepared to abduct the first available baby, authorities said.
Through interviews investigators now surmise the victims first encountered their kidnapper as they waited for a bus and the kidnapper asked for directions. After getting directions, the kidnapper drove off and the women and their babies boarded a bus which dropped them at Cleveland and Linhart avenues, Carr said.
"At that point the same black SUV turned around and approached them again, asking for better directions," he said. "We believe they were offered money if they would get in the car and show her where Pine Manor was."
Carr said there had been a similar abduction in DeSoto County "about eight months ago," but that suspect was still in custody.
He said he can only remember three or four such cases in his 28 years with the Fort Myers Police Department.
The News-Press staff writer Jamie Page contributed to this report.
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