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Kidnapped Los Angeles Child Found in Dallas

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Times Staff Writer

A kidnapped baby boy was safely turned over to child-welfare workers in Dallas on Wednesday, ending a nationwide search for the child, who was reported taken from his mother’s arms on a Los Angeles street two days before.

Two women suspected of taking the boy were arrested several hours later in a Dallas suburb and booked on suspicion of kidnapping.

Los Angeles police said that the baby’s suspected abductors may have made attempts to purchase other infants in the area before kidnapping 6-week-old Devon Calloway.

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An attorney for Annette Bryant, one of the women arrested, arranged for the baby’s safe return.

Early in the afternoon, law enforcement and child-welfare officials picked up the baby from the attorney’s Dallas office. They said he appeared healthy and unharmed. Devon remained in protective custody in Dallas late Wednesday and was scheduled to undergo a medical examination.

The alleged kidnappers, Bryant, 47, and Sylvia Nunn, 53, are suspected of offering money for Devon before taking him.

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Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Murphy said it was unlikely that Devon would be immediately returned to his mother, 17-year-old Dominique Calloway, who reported his kidnapping Monday afternoon.

During the course of the investigation of Devon’s disappearance, social workers determined that Calloway’s home was in such poor condition that they took her other child, a 2-year-old, into protective custody. Murphy said it was likely that LAPD detectives, or Los Angeles County social service workers, would fly to Dallas to pick Devon up.

Calloway has said she told Devon’s abductors she would consider selling him, but maintains she did not intend to follow through. When Bryant and Nunn allegedly drove off with Devon, Calloway clung to the side of their sport utility vehicle, trying to get her son until his abductors pushed her off.

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Calloway learned of her son’s safe return at her home Wednesday from KABC-TV Channel 7 news reporter Sid Garcia. She was tearful and said little, Garcia said.

On Wednesday, police said they had heard from at least two other people who allege that Nunn and Bryant also tried to persuade them to sell their babies or put them up for adoption. Police asked for the public’s help in determining whether other baby-solicitation incidents occurred. It remained unclear why the alleged abductors would want to buy children.

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